Weakness (CWE)
CWE-454: External Initialization of Trusted Variables or Data Stores
The product initializes critical internal variables or data stores using inputs that can be modified by untrusted actors.
How to prevent it (2 mitigations)
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Implementation
A product system should be reluctant to trust variables that have been initialized outside of its trust boundary, especially if they are initialized by users. Ensure adequate checking (e.g. input validation) is performed when relying on input from outside a trust boundary.
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Architecture and Design
Avoid any external control of variables. If necessary, restrict the variables that can be modified using an allowlist, and use a different namespace or naming convention if possible.
Source: MITRE CWE-454
5 results · Feed
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Critical 9.1
Kirby: External Initialization of the Panel on reverse proxy setups with the `Forwarded` header
Kirby is an open-source content management system. Prior to 4.9.4 and from 5.4.4, Kirby sites with no configured user accounts that run on publicly accessible servers behind a reverse proxy setting the Forwarded, X-Client-IP, or X-Real-IP request header could…
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Medium 6.3
pam_usb: getenv() used in PAM context allows environment variable injection into local-check logic
pam_usb provides hardware authentication for Linux using removable media. In versions prior to 0.9.2, getenv() environment variables XRDP_SESSION, DISPLAY and TMUX allow environment variable injection into local-check logic. These environment variables influe…
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High 7.3
OpenClaw < 2026.4.20 - Arbitrary Code Execution via MCP stdio Environment Variables
OpenClaw before 2026.4.20 contains an improper environment variable validation vulnerability in MCP stdio server configuration that allows attackers to execute arbitrary code. Malicious workspace configurations can pass dangerous startup variables like NODE_O…
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High 8.1
Microsoft Azure AD SSH Login extension for Linux Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability
External initialization of trusted variables or data stores in Azure Entra ID allows an unauthorized attacker to elevate privileges locally.
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High 7.4
IBM AIX privilege escalation
IBM AIX 7.2, 7.3, IBM VIOS 3.1, and 4.1, when configured to use Kerberos network authentication, could allow a local user to write to files on the system with root privileges due to improper initialization of critical variables.