CWE-575: EJB Bad Practices: Use of AWT Swing

Description

The product violates the Enterprise JavaBeans (EJB) specification by using AWT/Swing.

The Enterprise JavaBeans specification requires that every bean provider follow a set of programming guidelines designed to ensure that the bean will be portable and behave consistently in any EJB container. In this case, the product violates the following EJB guideline: "An enterprise bean must not use the AWT functionality to attempt to output information to a display, or to input information from a keyboard." The specification justifies this requirement in the following way: "Most servers do not allow direct interaction between an application program and a keyboard/display attached to the server system."

Potential Impact

Other

Quality Degradation

Demonstrative Examples

The following Java example is a simple converter class for converting US dollars to Yen. This converter class demonstrates the improper practice of using a stateless session Enterprise JavaBean that implements an AWT Component and AWT keyboard event listener to retrieve keyboard input from the user for the amount of the US dollars to convert to Yen.

Bad

@Statelesspublic class ConverterSessionBean extends Component implements KeyListener, ConverterSessionRemote {
                        
                           
                           /* member variables for receiving keyboard input using AWT API */
                           
                           ...private StringBuffer enteredText = new StringBuffer();
                           
                           /* conversion rate on US dollars to Yen */
                           
                           private BigDecimal yenRate = new BigDecimal("115.3100");
                           public ConverterSessionBean() {
                              super();
                                 /* method calls for setting up AWT Component for receiving keyboard input */
                                 
                                 ...addKeyListener(this);
                           }
                           public BigDecimal dollarToYen(BigDecimal dollars) {BigDecimal result = dollars.multiply(yenRate);return result.setScale(2, BigDecimal.ROUND_DOWN);}
                           
                           /* member functions for implementing AWT KeyListener interface */
                           
                           public void keyTyped(KeyEvent event) {...}
                           public void keyPressed(KeyEvent e) {}
                           public void keyReleased(KeyEvent e) {}
                           
                           /* member functions for receiving keyboard input and displaying output */
                           
                           public void paint(Graphics g) {...}
                           ...
                     }

This use of the AWT and Swing APIs within any kind of Enterprise JavaBean not only violates the restriction of the EJB specification against using AWT or Swing within an EJB but also violates the intended use of Enterprise JavaBeans to separate business logic from presentation logic.

The Stateless Session Enterprise JavaBean should contain only business logic. Presentation logic should be provided by some other mechanism such as Servlets or Java Server Pages (JSP) as in the following Java/JSP example.

Good

@Statelesspublic class ConverterSessionBean implements ConverterSessionRemoteInterface {
                        
                           
                           /* conversion rate on US dollars to Yen */
                           private BigDecimal yenRate = new BigDecimal("115.3100");
                           public ConverterSessionBean() {}
                           
                           /* remote method to convert US dollars to Yen */
                           
                           public BigDecimal dollarToYen(BigDecimal dollars) {BigDecimal result = dollars.multiply(yenRate);return result.setScale(2, BigDecimal.ROUND_DOWN);}
                     }

Good

<%@ page import="converter.ejb.Converter, java.math.*, javax.naming.*"%><%!
                        private Converter converter = null;public void jspInit() {try {InitialContext ic = new InitialContext();converter = (Converter) ic.lookup(Converter.class.getName());} catch (Exception ex) {System.out.println("Couldn't create converter bean."+ ex.getMessage());}}public void jspDestroy() {converter = null;}
                     
                     %><html>
                        <head><title>Converter</title></head><body bgcolor="white">
                              <h1>Converter</h1><hr><p>Enter an amount to convert:</p><form method="get"><input type="text" name="amount" size="25"><br><p><input type="submit" value="Submit"><input type="reset" value="Reset"></form><%String amount = request.getParameter("amount");if ( amount != null && amount.length() > 0 ) {BigDecimal d = new BigDecimal(amount);BigDecimal yenAmount = converter.dollarToYen(d);
                                 
                                 %><p><%= amount %> dollars are <%= yenAmount %> Yen.<p><%}
                                 %>
                           </body>
                     </html>

Mitigations & Prevention

Architecture and Design

Do not use AWT/Swing when writing EJBs.

Taxonomy Mappings

Software Fault Patterns: SFP3 — Use of an improper API

Frequently Asked Questions

What is CWE-575?

CWE-575 (EJB Bad Practices: Use of AWT Swing) is a software weakness identified by MITRE's Common Weakness Enumeration. It is classified as a Variant-level weakness. The product violates the Enterprise JavaBeans (EJB) specification by using AWT/Swing.

How can CWE-575 be exploited?

Attackers can exploit CWE-575 (EJB Bad Practices: Use of AWT Swing) to quality degradation. This weakness is typically introduced during the Implementation phase of software development.

How do I prevent CWE-575?

Key mitigations include: Do not use AWT/Swing when writing EJBs.

What is the severity of CWE-575?

CWE-575 is classified as a Variant-level weakness (Low-Medium abstraction). Its actual severity depends on the specific context and how the weakness manifests in your application.