Common Weakness Enumeration

CWE-546

Weakness Allowed

Suspicious Comment

Abstraction: Base · Status: Draft

API response cwe.mitre.org

The code contains comments that suggest the presence of bugs, incomplete functionality, or weaknesses.

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-1078 · View CWE-1000
Modes of introduction
Implementation

If the code is missing security functionality or checking, developers might add suspicious comments such as BUG, HACK, FIXME, LATER, LATER2, or TODO. The code could have other problems that programmers should fix, such as hard-coded variables, error handling, not using stored procedures, and performance issues.

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.)

Content history
Submission: Anonymous Tool Vendor (under NDA) · 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 Potential_Mitigations, Time_of_Introduction

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

updated Description, Relationships, Taxonomy_Mappings

Modification: CWE Content Team · MITRE · 2010-06-21 · CWE 1.9

updated Demonstrative_Examples

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

updated Common_Consequences

Modification: CWE Content Team · MITRE · 2011-06-27 · CWE 2.0

updated Common_Consequences

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

updated Common_Consequences, Relationships

Modification: CWE Content Team · MITRE · 2012-10-30 · CWE 2.3

updated Potential_Mitigations

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

updated Relationships

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

updated Relationships, Taxonomy_Mappings

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

updated Relationships, Weakness_Ordinalities

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

updated Applicable_Platforms, Relationships

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

updated Relationships

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

updated Mapping_Notes

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

updated Detection_Factors

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

updated Description, Modes_of_Introduction, Type

0 vulnerabilities reference this CWE, most recent first.

No vulnerabilities reference this CWE.

Mitigation
Documentation

Remove comments that suggest the presence of bugs, incomplete functionality, or weaknesses, before deploying the application.

No CAPEC attack patterns related to this CWE.

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