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Security Operations · Advanced

Race Condition

A flaw where the outcome depends on the timing of events, allowing attackers to exploit the gap between operations.

Definition

A common type is time-of-check to time-of-use (TOCTOU), where a resource changes between a security check and its use. Race conditions can enable privilege escalation, double spending or bypassing limits. Atomic operations and proper locking mitigate them.

Example

Swapping a file for a symlink to /etc/shadow after a privileged program checks permissions but before it writes.

Exam tip

TOCTOU is the specific race condition term Security+ uses.

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