An exception is thrown from a function, but it is not caught.
View on MITREWhen an exception is not caught, it may cause the program to crash or expose sensitive information.
An uncaught exception could cause the system to be placed in a state that could lead to a crash, exposure of sensitive information or other unintended behaviors.
No mitigation information available for this CWE.
No detection method information available for this CWE.
The following example attempts to resolve a hostname.
A DNS lookup failure will cause the Servlet to throw an exception.
SDK for OPC Unified Architecture (OPC UA) server has uncaught exception when a socket is blocked for writing but the server tries to send an error
View DetailsJava code in a smartphone OS can encounter a "boot loop" due to an uncaught exception
View DetailsNo relationship information available for this CWE.
CWE-248: Uncaught Exception is a Common Weakness Enumeration (CWE) entry maintained by MITRE. An exception is thrown from a function, but it is not caught. When an exception is not caught, it may cause the program to crash or expose sensitive information.
If exploited, CWE-248 (Uncaught Exception) it can compromise Availability and Confidentiality, leading to outcomes such as DoS: Crash, Exit, or Restart and Read Application Data.
CWE-248 commonly affects C++, Java and C#. Note that weaknesses are often language-agnostic patterns, so secure coding practices apply broadly.
MITRE documents real CVEs mapped to CWE-248, including CVE-2023-41151 and CVE-2023-21087. You can look up the full details of each CVE, including CVSS scores and remediation guidance, on our CVE Lookup tool.
A CWE (Common Weakness Enumeration) like CWE-248 describes a category of software weakness — the underlying flaw type. A CVE (Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures) identifies a specific, real-world vulnerability in a particular product. In short, a CWE is the kind of mistake, and a CVE is an instance of that mistake being found in software.