When the J2EE container attempts to write unserializable objects to disk there is no guarantee that the process will complete successfully.
View on MITREIn heavy load conditions, most J2EE application frameworks flush objects to disk to manage memory requirements of incoming requests. For example, session scoped objects, and even application scoped objects, are written to disk when required. While these application frameworks do the real work of writing objects to disk, they do not enforce that those objects be serializable, thus leaving the web application vulnerable to crashes induced by serialization failure. An attacker may be able to mount a denial of service attack by sending enough requests to the server to force the web application to save objects to disk.
Data represented by unserializable objects can be corrupted.
Non-serializability of objects can lead to system crash.
All objects that become part of session and application scope must implement the java.io.Serializable interface to ensure serializability of containing objects.
No detection method information available for this CWE.
In the following Java example, a Customer Entity JavaBean provides access to customer information in a database for a business application. The Customer Entity JavaBean is used as a session scoped object to return customer information to a Session EJB.
However, the Customer Entity JavaBean is an unserialized object which can cause serialization failure and crash the application when the J2EE container attempts to write the object to the system. Session scoped objects must implement the Serializable interface to ensure that the objects serialize properly.
In the following Java example, a Customer Entity JavaBean provides access to customer information in a database for a business application. The Customer Entity JavaBean is used as a session scoped object to return customer information to a Session EJB.
However, the Customer Entity JavaBean is an unserialized object which can cause serialization failure and crash the application when the J2EE container attempts to write the object to the system. Session scoped objects must implement the Serializable interface to ensure that the objects serialize properly.
No relationship information available for this CWE.
CWE-594: J2EE Framework: Saving Unserializable Objects to Disk is a Common Weakness Enumeration (CWE) entry maintained by MITRE. When the J2EE container attempts to write unserializable objects to disk there is no guarantee that the process will complete successfully. In heavy load conditions, most J2EE application frameworks flush objects to disk to manage memory requirements of incoming requests. For example, session scoped objects, and even application scoped objects, are written to disk when required. While these application frameworks do the real work of writing objects to disk, they do not enforce that those objects be serializable, thus leaving the web application vulnerable to crashes induced by serialization failure. An attacker may be able to mount a denial of service attack by sending enough requests to the server to force the web application to save objects to disk.
If exploited, CWE-594 (J2EE Framework: Saving Unserializable Objects to Disk) it can compromise Integrity and Availability, leading to outcomes such as Modify Application Data and DoS: Crash, Exit, or Restart.
Recommended mitigations for CWE-594 include: All objects that become part of session and application scope must implement the java.io.Serializable interface to ensure serializability of containing objects.
CWE-594 commonly affects Java. Note that weaknesses are often language-agnostic patterns, so secure coding practices apply broadly.
A CWE (Common Weakness Enumeration) like CWE-594 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.