detecting-type-confusion

name	detecting-type-confusion
description	Detects type confusion vulnerabilities by identifying unsafe type casts, vtable corruption, and polymorphism issues. Use when analyzing object-oriented code, type casting, or investigating C++ memory safety issues.

Type Confusion Detection

Detection Workflow

1. Identify type operations: Find all type casts, virtual function calls, union usage, class hierarchies
2. Analyze type safety: Check cast validation, assess vtable integrity, verify union usage correctness
3. Trace object flow: Use xrefs_to to trace objects, identify type changes, assess type consistency
4. Assess exploitability: Can attacker control object type? Is there useful type confusion? Can attacker corrupt vtable?

Key Patterns

• Unsafe type casting: C-style casts without validation, reinterpret_cast without checks
• Vtable corruption: virtual function calls on corrupted objects, vtable pointer manipulation
• Union misuse: writing to one union member, reading another
• Polymorphism issues: base pointer used as derived without dynamic_cast

Output Format

Report with: id, type, subtype, severity, confidence, location, vulnerability, cast operation, base type, derived type, validation, vtable access, exploitability, attack scenario, impact, mitigation.

Severity Guidelines

• CRITICAL: Type confusion with code execution
• HIGH: Type confusion with data corruption
• MEDIUM: Type confusion with limited impact
• LOW: Type confusion with minor issues

See Also

• patterns.md - Detailed detection patterns and exploitation scenarios
• examples.md - Example analysis cases and code samples
• references.md - CWE references and mitigation strategies