CWE - CWE-267: Privilege Defined With Unsafe Actions (4.20)
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    CWE-267: Privilege Defined With Unsafe Actions

    Weakness ID: 267
    Vulnerability Mapping: ALLOWED This CWE ID may be used to map to real-world vulnerabilities
    Abstraction: Base Base - a weakness that is still mostly independent of a resource or technology, but with sufficient details to provide specific methods for detection and prevention. Base level weaknesses typically describe issues in terms of 2 or 3 of the following dimensions: behavior, property, technology, language, and resource.
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    + Description
    A particular privilege, role, capability, or right can be used to perform unsafe actions that were not intended, even when it is assigned to the correct entity.
    + Common Consequences
    Section HelpThis table specifies different individual consequences associated with the weakness. The Scope identifies the application security area that is violated, while the Impact describes the negative technical impact that arises if an adversary succeeds in exploiting this weakness. The Likelihood provides information about how likely the specific consequence is expected to be seen relative to the other consequences in the list. For example, there may be high likelihood that a weakness will be exploited to achieve a certain impact, but a low likelihood that it will be exploited to achieve a different impact.
    Impact Details

    Gain Privileges or Assume Identity

    		Scope: Access Control

    A user can access restricted functionality and/or sensitive information that may include administrative functionality and user accounts.
    + Potential Mitigations
    Phase(s) Mitigation

    Architecture and Design; Operation
    Very carefully manage the setting, management, and handling of privileges. Explicitly manage trust zones in the software.

    Architecture and Design; Operation

    Strategy: Environment Hardening

    Run your code using the lowest privileges that are required to accomplish the necessary tasks [REF-76]. If possible, create isolated accounts with limited privileges that are only used for a single task. That way, a successful attack will not immediately give the attacker access to the rest of the software or its environment. For example, database applications rarely need to run as the database administrator, especially in day-to-day operations.
    + Relationships
    Section Help This table shows the weaknesses and high level categories that are related to this weakness. These relationships are defined as ChildOf, ParentOf, MemberOf and give insight to similar items that may exist at higher and lower levels of abstraction. In addition, relationships such as PeerOf and CanAlsoBe are defined to show similar weaknesses that the user may want to explore.
    + Relevant to the view "Research Concepts" (View-1000)
    Nature Type ID Name
    ChildOf Class Class - a weakness that is described in a very abstract fashion, typically independent of any specific language or technology. More specific than a Pillar Weakness, but more general than a Base Weakness. Class level weaknesses typically describe issues in terms of 1 or 2 of the following dimensions: behavior, property, and resource. 269 Improper Privilege Management
    ParentOf Variant Variant - a weakness that is linked to a certain type of product, typically involving a specific language or technology. More specific than a Base weakness. Variant level weaknesses typically describe issues in terms of 3 to 5 of the following dimensions: behavior, property, technology, language, and resource. 623 Unsafe ActiveX Control Marked Safe For Scripting
    + Relevant to the view "Software Development" (View-699)
    Nature Type ID Name
    MemberOf Category Category - a CWE entry that contains a set of other entries that share a common characteristic. 265 Privilege Issues
    + Relevant to the view "Architectural Concepts" (View-1008)
    Nature Type ID Name
    MemberOf Category Category - a CWE entry that contains a set of other entries that share a common characteristic. 1011 Authorize Actors
    + Modes Of Introduction
    Section HelpThe different Modes of Introduction provide information about how and when this weakness may be introduced. The Phase identifies a point in the life cycle at which introduction may occur, while the Note provides a typical scenario related to introduction during the given phase.
    Phase Note
    Architecture and Design
    Implementation REALIZATION: This weakness is caused during implementation of an architectural security tactic.
    Operation
    + Applicable Platforms
    Section HelpThis listing shows possible areas for which the given weakness could appear. These may be for specific named Languages, Operating Systems, Architectures, Paradigms, Technologies, or a class of such platforms. The platform is listed along with how frequently the given weakness appears for that instance.
    Languages

    Class: Not Language-Specific (Undetermined Prevalence)

    + Demonstrative Examples

    Example 1


    This code intends to allow only Administrators to print debug information about a system.

    (bad code)
    Example Language: Java 
    public enum Roles {
    ADMIN,USER,GUEST
    }

    public void printDebugInfo(User requestingUser){
    if(isAuthenticated(requestingUser)){
    switch(requestingUser.role){
    case GUEST:
    System.out.println("You are not authorized to perform this command");
    break;

    default:
    System.out.println(currentDebugState());
    break;
    }
    }
    else{
    System.out.println("You must be logged in to perform this command");
    }
    }

    While the intention was to only allow Administrators to print the debug information, the code as written only excludes those with the role of "GUEST". Someone with the role of "ADMIN" or "USER" will be allowed access, which goes against the original intent. An attacker may be able to use this debug information to craft an attack on the system.



    + Selected Observed Examples

    Note: this is a curated list of examples for users to understand the variety of ways in which this weakness can be introduced. It is not a complete list of all CVEs that are related to this CWE entry.

    Reference Description
    Roles have access to dangerous procedures (Accessible entities).
    Untrusted object/method gets access to clipboard (Accessible entities).
    Gain privileges using functions/tags that should be restricted (Accessible entities).
    Traceroute program allows unprivileged users to modify source address of packet (Accessible entities).
    Bypass domain restrictions using a particular file that references unsafe URI schemes (Accessible entities).
    Script does not restrict access to an update command, leading to resultant disk consumption and filled error logs (Accessible entities).
    "public" database user can use stored procedure to modify data controlled by the database owner (Unsafe privileged actions).
    User with capability can prevent setuid program from dropping privileges (Unsafe privileged actions).
    Allows attachment to and modification of privileged processes (Unsafe privileged actions).
    User with privilege can edit raw underlying object using unprotected method (Unsafe privileged actions).
    Inappropriate actions allowed by a particular role(Unsafe privileged actions).
    Untrusted entity allowed to access the system clipboard (Unsafe privileged actions).
    Extra Linux capability allows bypass of system-specified restriction (Unsafe privileged actions).
    User with debugging rights can read entire process (Unsafe privileged actions).
    Non-root admins can add themselves or others to the root admin group (Unsafe privileged actions).
    Users can change certain properties of objects to perform otherwise unauthorized actions (Unsafe privileged actions).
    Certain debugging commands not restricted to just the administrator, allowing registry modification and infoleak (Unsafe privileged actions).
    + Weakness Ordinalities
    Ordinality Description
    Primary
    (where the weakness exists independent of other weaknesses)
    + Memberships
    Section HelpThis MemberOf Relationships table shows additional CWE Categories and Views that reference this weakness as a member. This information is often useful in understanding where a weakness fits within the context of external information sources.
    Nature Type ID Name
    MemberOf ViewView - a subset of CWE entries that provides a way of examining CWE content. The two main view structures are Slices (flat lists) and Graphs (containing relationships between entries). 884 CWE Cross-section
    MemberOf CategoryCategory - a CWE entry that contains a set of other entries that share a common characteristic. 901 SFP Primary Cluster: Privilege
    MemberOf CategoryCategory - a CWE entry that contains a set of other entries that share a common characteristic. 1396 Comprehensive Categorization: Access Control
    + Vulnerability Mapping Notes
    Usage ALLOWED
    (this CWE ID may be used to map to real-world vulnerabilities)
    Reason Acceptable-Use

    Rationale

    		This CWE entry is at the Base level of abstraction, which is a preferred level of abstraction for mapping to the root causes of vulnerabilities.

    Comments

    		Carefully read both the name and description to ensure that this mapping is an appropriate fit. Do not try to 'force' a mapping to a lower-level Base/Variant simply to comply with this preferred level of abstraction.
    + Notes

    Maintenance

    Note: there are 2 separate sub-categories here:

    - privilege incorrectly allows entities to perform certain actions
    - object is incorrectly accessible to entities with a given privilege
    + Taxonomy Mappings
    Mapped Taxonomy Name Node ID Fit Mapped Node Name
    PLOVER Unsafe Privilege
    + References
    [REF-76] Sean Barnum and Michael Gegick. "Least Privilege". 2005-09-14.
    <https://web.archive.org/web/20211209014121/https://www.cisa.gov/uscert/bsi/articles/knowledge/principles/least-privilege>. (URL validated: 2023-04-07)
    + Content History
    + Submissions
    Submission Date Submitter Organization
    2006-07-19
    (CWE Draft 3, 2006-07-19)     		PLOVER
    + Modifications
    Modification Date Modifier Organization
    2025-12-11
    (CWE 4.19, 2025-12-11)     		CWE Content Team MITRE
    updated Weakness_Ordinalities
    2023-06-29
    (CWE 4.12, 2023-06-29)     		CWE Content Team MITRE
    updated Mapping_Notes
    2023-04-27
    (CWE 4.11, 2023-04-27)     		CWE Content Team MITRE
    updated References, Relationships
    2022-10-13
    (CWE 4.9, 2022-10-13)     		CWE Content Team MITRE
    updated References
    2021-03-15
    (CWE 4.4, 2021-03-15)     		CWE Content Team MITRE
    updated Maintenance_Notes
    2020-08-20
    (CWE 4.2, 2020-08-20)     		CWE Content Team MITRE
    updated Demonstrative_Examples
    2020-02-24
    (CWE 4.0, 2020-02-24)     		CWE Content Team MITRE
    updated Relationships
    2019-09-19
    (CWE 3.4, 2019-09-19)     		CWE Content Team MITRE
    updated Demonstrative_Examples
    2019-01-03
    (CWE 3.2, 2019-01-03)     		CWE Content Team MITRE
    updated Related_Attack_Patterns
    2017-11-08
    (CWE 3.0, 2017-11-08)     		CWE Content Team MITRE
    updated Applicable_Platforms, Modes_of_Introduction, References, Relationships
    2012-10-30
    (CWE 2.3, 2012-10-30)     		CWE Content Team MITRE
    updated Potential_Mitigations, References
    2012-05-11
    (CWE 2.2, 2012-05-15)     		CWE Content Team MITRE
    updated Common_Consequences, Demonstrative_Examples, Relationships
    2011-06-01
    (CWE 1.13, 2011-06-01)     		CWE Content Team MITRE
    updated Common_Consequences
    2010-06-21
    (CWE 1.9, 2010-06-21)     		CWE Content Team MITRE
    updated Potential_Mitigations
    2009-12-28
    (CWE 1.7, 2009-12-28)     		CWE Content Team MITRE
    updated Potential_Mitigations
    2008-11-24
    (CWE 1.1, 2008-11-25)     		CWE Content Team MITRE
    updated Relationships
    2008-09-08
    (CWE 1.0, 2008-09-09)     		CWE Content Team MITRE
    updated Description, Maintenance_Notes, Relationships, Taxonomy_Mappings
    2008-07-01
    (CWE 1.0, 2008-09-09)     		Eric Dalci Cigital
    updated Time_of_Introduction
    + Previous Entry Names
    Change Date Previous Entry Name
    2008-04-11 Unsafe Privilege
    Page Last Updated: April 30, 2026