Common Weakness Enumeration

CWE-382

Weakness Allowed

J2EE Bad Practices: Use of System.exit()

Abstraction: Variant · Status: Draft

A J2EE application uses System.exit().

Dimensions

  • Framework: J2EE
  • Other: Bad Practices
  • Behavior-Type: Use
  • Code-Type: System.exit()
Mapping guidance

This CWE entry is at the Variant level of abstraction, which is a preferred level of abstraction for mapping to the root causes of vulnerabilities.

Carefully read both the name and description to ensure that this mapping is an appropriate fit. Do not try to 'force' a mapping to a lower-level Base/Variant simply to comply with this preferred level of abstraction.

Relationships and members
ChildOf: CWE-705 · View CWE-1000
Modes of introduction
Implementation

A call to System.exit() is probably part of leftover debug code or code imported from a non-J2EE application.

Detection methods

Automated Static Analysis

Automated static analysis, commonly referred to as Static Application Security Testing (SAST), can find some instances of this weakness by analyzing source code (or binary/compiled code) without having to execute it. Typically, this is done by building a model of data flow and control flow, then searching for potentially-vulnerable patterns that connect "sources" (origins of input) with "sinks" (destinations where the data interacts with external components, a lower layer such as the OS, etc.)

Effectiveness: High

Content history
Submission: 7 Pernicious Kingdoms · 2006-07-19 · CWE Draft 3
Modification: Sean Eidemiller · Cigital · 2008-07-01 · CWE 1.0

added/updated demonstrative examples

Modification: Eric Dalci · Cigital · 2008-07-01 · CWE 1.0

updated Time_of_Introduction

Modification: CWE Content Team · MITRE · 2008-09-08 · CWE 1.0

updated Relationships, Other_Notes, Taxonomy_Mappings

Modification: CWE Content Team · MITRE · 2011-06-01 · CWE 1.13

updated Common_Consequences, Relationships, Taxonomy_Mappings

Modification: CWE Content Team · MITRE · 2012-05-11 · CWE 2.2

updated Relationships

Modification: CWE Content Team · MITRE · 2014-06-23 · CWE 2.7

updated Description, Modes_of_Introduction, Other_Notes, Potential_Mitigations

Modification: CWE Content Team · MITRE · 2014-07-30 · CWE 2.8

updated Relationships, Taxonomy_Mappings

Modification: CWE Content Team · MITRE · 2017-11-08 · CWE 3.0

updated Relationships

Modification: CWE Content Team · MITRE · 2019-01-03 · CWE 3.2

updated Relationships, Taxonomy_Mappings

Modification: CWE Content Team · MITRE · 2020-02-24 · CWE 4.0

updated References, Relationships

Modification: CWE Content Team · MITRE · 2023-04-27 · CWE 4.11

updated Detection_Factors, Relationships

Modification: CWE Content Team · MITRE · 2023-06-29 · CWE 4.12

updated Mapping_Notes

Modification: CWE Content Team · MITRE · 2024-02-29 · CWE 4.14

updated Demonstrative_Examples

Modification: CWE Content Team · MITRE · 2025-12-11 · CWE 4.19

updated Applicable_Platforms, Relationships, Weakness_Ordinalities

Modification: CWE Content Team · MITRE · 2026-10-28 · CWE 5.0

updated Common_Consequences, Description, Dimensions, Potential_Mitigations, References

0 vulnerabilities reference this CWE, most recent first.

No vulnerabilities reference this CWE.

Mitigation
Architecture and Design

Strategy: Separation of Privilege

The shutdown function should be a privileged function available only to a properly authorized administrative user.

Mitigation
Implementation

Web applications should not call methods that cause the virtual machine to exit, such as System.exit().

Mitigation
Implementation

Web applications should not throw any Throwables to the application server, as this may adversely affect the container.

Mitigation
Implementation

Non-web applications may have a main() method that contains a System.exit(), but generally should not call System.exit() from other locations in the code.

No CAPEC attack patterns related to this CWE.