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Race Conditions

What is Race Condition?

Race conditions is a vulnerability that occur in concurrent systems, where the behaviour of the system depends on the sequence or timing of events. These vulnerabilities arise when multiple threads or processes attempt to modify shared resources concurrently without proper synchronization, leading to unpredictable or unintended outcomes.

Different Attack types

1. Boundary exceeding race conditions
Boundary exceeding race conditions occur when multiple processes or threads attempt to surpass predefined constraints established by an application's operational rules at the same time. An attacker can send multiple requests concurrently, by aiming to exploit the short time intervals between the validation of rules and their actual application.

2. Single-endpoint race condition
In a single-endpoint race condition, attackers exploit vulnerabilities where multiple processes or threads compete for control over the same endpoint or resource simultaneously. In a collaborative document editing platform where multiple users can simultaneously edit a document, a single-endpoint race condition can occur, posing challenges to data integrity and collaborative efforts.

3. Multi-endpoint Race condition
Multi-endpoint Race condition in web applications is a vulnerability where simultaneous requests to different endpoints can lead to unexpected behavior due to the lack of proper synchronization or locking mechanisms. This can result in inconsistent or erroneous data processing, potentially allowing attackers to manipulate the application's state or access unauthorized information.

4. Time sensitive attack
A time-sensitive race condition in web applications occurs when multiple processes compete to access or modify shared resources within a specific timeframe. This vulnerability arises due to the unpredictability of process execution times, leading to inconsistent or unintended behavior. Attackers can exploit this by manipulating the timing of requests to gain unauthorized access, bypass security measures, or cause data corruption.

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