Detalle CWE-269

CWE-269

Improper Privilege Management
Medio
Draft
2006-07-19
00h00 +00:00
2026-01-21
00h00 +00:00
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Nombre: Improper Privilege Management

The product does not properly assign, modify, track, or check privileges for an actor, creating an unintended sphere of control for that actor.

Informaciones generales

Modos de introducción

Architecture and Design
Implementation : REALIZATION: This weakness is caused during implementation of an architectural security tactic.
Operation

Plataformas aplicables

Lenguaje

Class: Not Language-Specific (Undetermined)

Consecuencias comunes

Alcance Impacto Probabilidad
Access ControlGain Privileges or Assume Identity

Ejemplos observados

Referencias Descripción

CVE-2001-1555

Terminal privileges are not reset when a user logs out.

CVE-2001-1514

Does not properly pass security context to child processes in certain cases, allows privilege escalation.

CVE-2001-0128

Does not properly compute roles.

CVE-1999-1193

untrusted user placed in unix "wheel" group

CVE-2005-2741

Product allows users to grant themselves certain rights that can be used to escalate privileges.

CVE-2005-2496

Product uses group ID of a user instead of the group, causing it to run with different privileges. This is resultant from some other unknown issue.

CVE-2004-0274

Product mistakenly assigns a particular status to an entity, leading to increased privileges.

CVE-2007-4217

FTP client program on a certain OS runs with setuid privileges and has a buffer overflow. Most clients do not need extra privileges, so an overflow is not a vulnerability for those clients.

CVE-2007-5159

OS incorrectly installs a program with setuid privileges, allowing users to gain privileges.

CVE-2008-4638

Composite: application running with high privileges (CWE-250) allows user to specify a restricted file to process, which generates a parsing error that leaks the contents of the file (CWE-209).

CVE-2007-3931

Installation script installs some programs as setuid when they shouldn't be.

CVE-2002-1981

Roles have access to dangerous procedures (Accessible entities).

CVE-2002-1671

Untrusted object/method gets access to clipboard (Accessible entities).

CVE-2000-0315

Traceroute program allows unprivileged users to modify source address of packet (Accessible entities).

CVE-2000-0506

User with capability can prevent setuid program from dropping privileges (Unsafe privileged actions).

Mitigaciones potenciales

Phases : Architecture and Design // Operation
Very carefully manage the setting, management, and handling of privileges. Explicitly manage trust zones in the software.
Phases : Architecture and Design
Follow the principle of least privilege when assigning access rights to entities in a software system.
Phases : Architecture and Design
Consider following the principle of separation of privilege. Require multiple conditions to be met before permitting access to a system resource.

Métodos de detección

Automated Static Analysis

Automated static analysis, commonly referred to as Static Application Security Testing (SAST), can find some instances of this weakness by analyzing source code (or binary/compiled code) without having to execute it. Typically, this is done by building a model of data flow and control flow, then searching for potentially-vulnerable patterns that connect "sources" (origins of input) with "sinks" (destinations where the data interacts with external components, a lower layer such as the OS, etc.)
Efectividad : High

Notas de mapeo de vulnerabilidades

Justificación : CWE-269 is commonly misused. It can be conflated with "privilege escalation," which is a technical impact that is listed in many low-information vulnerability reports [REF-1287]. It is not useful for trend analysis.
Comentario : If an error or mistake allows privilege escalation, then use the CWE ID for that mistake. Avoid using CWE-269 when only phrases such as "privilege escalation" or "gain privileges" are available, as these indicate technical impact of the vulnerability - not the root cause weakness. If the root cause seems to be directly related to privileges, then examine the children of CWE-269 for additional hints, such as Execution with Unnecessary Privileges (CWE-250) or Incorrect Privilege Assignment (CWE-266).

Patrones de ataque relacionados

CAPEC-ID Nombre del patrón de ataque
CAPEC-122 Privilege Abuse
An adversary is able to exploit features of the target that should be reserved for privileged users or administrators but are exposed to use by lower or non-privileged accounts. Access to sensitive information and functionality must be controlled to ensure that only authorized users are able to access these resources.
CAPEC-233 Privilege Escalation
An adversary exploits a weakness enabling them to elevate their privilege and perform an action that they are not supposed to be authorized to perform.
CAPEC-58 Restful Privilege Elevation
An adversary identifies a Rest HTTP (Get, Put, Delete) style permission method allowing them to perform various malicious actions upon server data due to lack of access control mechanisms implemented within the application service accepting HTTP messages.

Notas

The relationships between privileges, permissions, and actors (e.g. users and groups) need further refinement within the Research view. One complication is that these concepts apply to two different pillars, related to control of resources (CWE-664) and protection mechanism failures (CWE-693).

Referencias

REF-44

24 Deadly Sins of Software Security
Michael Howard, David LeBlanc, John Viega.

REF-62

The Art of Software Security Assessment
Mark Dowd, John McDonald, Justin Schuh.

REF-1287

Supplemental Details - 2022 CWE Top 25
MITRE.
https://cwe.mitre.org/top25/archive/2022/2022_cwe_top25_supplemental.html#problematicMappingDetails

Envío

Nombre Organización Fecha Fecha de lanzamiento Version
PLOVER 2006-07-19 +00:00 2006-07-19 +00:00 Draft 3

Modificaciones

Nombre Organización Fecha Comentario
Eric Dalci Cigital 2008-07-01 +00:00 updated Time_of_Introduction
CWE Team 2008-09-08 +00:00 Moved this entry higher up in the Research view.
CWE Content Team MITRE 2008-09-08 +00:00 updated Description, Maintenance_Notes, Name, Relationships, Taxonomy_Mappings, Weakness_Ordinalities
CWE Content Team MITRE 2009-05-27 +00:00 updated Name
CWE Content Team MITRE 2009-12-28 +00:00 updated Potential_Mitigations
CWE Content Team MITRE 2010-06-21 +00:00 updated Potential_Mitigations
CWE Content Team MITRE 2011-03-29 +00:00 updated Description, Relationships
CWE Content Team MITRE 2011-06-01 +00:00 updated Common_Consequences
CWE Content Team MITRE 2012-05-11 +00:00 updated References, Relationships
CWE Content Team MITRE 2012-10-30 +00:00 updated Potential_Mitigations
CWE Content Team MITRE 2013-02-21 +00:00 updated Potential_Mitigations
CWE Content Team MITRE 2017-11-08 +00:00 updated Applicable_Platforms, Causal_Nature, Modes_of_Introduction, Relationships, Type
CWE Content Team MITRE 2019-06-20 +00:00 updated Related_Attack_Patterns, Relationships
CWE Content Team MITRE 2019-09-19 +00:00 updated Demonstrative_Examples, Maintenance_Notes, Observed_Examples, Relationships
CWE Content Team MITRE 2020-02-24 +00:00 updated Observed_Examples, Relationships
CWE Content Team MITRE 2020-08-20 +00:00 updated Relationships
CWE Content Team MITRE 2021-03-15 +00:00 updated Demonstrative_Examples
CWE Content Team MITRE 2021-10-28 +00:00 updated Relationships
CWE Content Team MITRE 2022-04-28 +00:00 updated Relationships
CWE Content Team MITRE 2022-10-13 +00:00 updated References
CWE Content Team MITRE 2023-01-31 +00:00 updated Description
CWE Content Team MITRE 2023-04-27 +00:00 updated Detection_Factors, Relationships
CWE Content Team MITRE 2023-06-29 +00:00 updated Mapping_Notes, Relationships, Taxonomy_Mappings
CWE Content Team MITRE 2024-07-16 +00:00 updated Diagram
CWE Content Team MITRE 2024-11-19 +00:00 updated Relationships
CWE Content Team MITRE 2025-12-11 +00:00 updated Relationships
CWE Content Team MITRE 2026-01-21 +00:00 updated Relationships