# Protection Mechanism Failure (CWE-693)

The product does not use or incorrectly uses a protection mechanism that provides sufficient defense against directed attacks against the product.

**Stack:** Docker

- Prevalence: High Frequently exploited
- Impact: High 1 high-severity rules
- Prevention: Documented 8 fix examples

**OWASP:** Security Misconfiguration (A05:2021-Security Misconfiguration) - #5

## Description

This weakness covers three distinct situations: Missing a protection mechanism, using a faulty protection mechanism, or incorrectly applying a protection mechanism. A missing protection mechanism occurs when the application does not defend against a specific attack. A faulty protection mechanism occurs when the application does defend against a specific attack, but the protection mechanism is not implemented correctly.

## Prevention

Prevention strategies for Protection Mechanism Failure based on 1 Shoulder detection rules.

### Docker

Add a HEALTHCHECK instruction to enable container health monitoring

## Warning Signs

- [LOW] Dockerfile has no HEALTHCHECK instruction for container health monitoring
- [LOW] Dockerfiles missing HEALTHCHECK instructions for container monitoring

## Consequences

- Bypass Protection Mechanism
- Execute Unauthorized Code
- Gain Privileges

## Mitigations

- Implement multiple layers of security (defense in depth)
- Use industry-standard, tested security mechanisms rather than custom implementations
- Ensure protection mechanisms cannot be bypassed or disabled

## Detection

- Total rules: 8
- Languages: dockerfile, go, javascript, typescript

## Rules by Language

### Dockerfile (1 rules)

- **Missing Healthcheck Configuration** [LOW]: Detects Dockerfiles missing HEALTHCHECK instructions for container monitoring.
  - Remediation: Add a HEALTHCHECK instruction to monitor container health.

```dockerfile
HEALTHCHECK --interval=30s --timeout=10s --retries=3 \
  CMD curl -f http://localhost:8080/health || exit 1
```

Learn more: https://shoulder.dev/learn/docker/cwe-693/missing-healthcheck