CWE-396

Declaration of Catch for Generic Exception
AI Translation Available

Catching overly broad exceptions promotes complex error handling code that is more likely to contain security vulnerabilities.

Status
draft
Abstraction
base
C# C++ Java Python

Multiple catch blocks can get ugly and repetitive, but 'condensing' catch blocks by catching a high-level class like Exception can obscure exceptions that deserve special treatment or that should not be caught at this point in the program. Catching an overly broad exception essentially defeats the purpose of a language's typed exceptions, and can become particularly dangerous if the program grows and begins to throw new types of exceptions. The new exception types will not receive any attention.

Common Consequences

non-repudiation other
Impacts
hide activities

Detection Methods

automated static analysis

Potential Mitigations