CWE-1074

Class with Excessively Deep Inheritance
AI Translation Available

A class has an inheritance level that is too high, i.e., it
has a large number of parent classes.

Status
incomplete
Abstraction
base

This issue makes it more difficult to understand and maintain the product, which indirectly affects security by making it more difficult or time-consuming to find and/or fix vulnerabilities. It also might make it easier to introduce vulnerabilities.

While the interpretation of 'large number of parent classes' may vary for each product or developer, CISQ recommends a default maximum of 7 parent classes.

Common Consequences

other
Impacts
reduce maintainability

Potential Mitigations