CWE - CWE-283: Unverified Ownership (4.20)
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    CWE-283: Unverified Ownership

    Weakness ID: 283
    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
    The product does not properly verify that a critical resource is owned by the proper 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

    An attacker could gain unauthorized access to system resources.
    + 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

    Strategy: Separation of Privilege

    Consider following the principle of separation of privilege. Require multiple conditions to be met before permitting access to a system resource.
    + 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. 282 Improper Ownership Management
    + 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. 840 Business Logic Errors
    + 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 REALIZATION: This weakness is caused during implementation of an architectural security tactic.
    + 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 function is part of a privileged program that takes input from users with potentially lower privileges.

    (bad code)
    Example Language: Python 
    def killProcess(processID):
    os.kill(processID, signal.SIGKILL)

    This code does not confirm that the process to be killed is owned by the requesting user, thus allowing an attacker to kill arbitrary processes.

    This function remedies the problem by checking the owner of the process before killing it:

    (good code)
    Example Language: Python 
    def killProcess(processID):
    user = getCurrentUser()

    #Check process owner against requesting user
    if getProcessOwner(processID) == user:
    os.kill(processID, signal.SIGKILL)
    return

    else:
    print("You cannot kill a process you don't own")
    return


    + 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
    Program does not verify the owner of a UNIX socket that is used for sending a password.
    Owner of special device not checked, allowing root.
    + 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 CategoryCategory - a CWE entry that contains a set of other entries that share a common characteristic. 723 OWASP Top Ten 2004 Category A2 - Broken Access Control
    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. 944 SFP Secondary Cluster: Access Management
    MemberOf CategoryCategory - a CWE entry that contains a set of other entries that share a common characteristic. 1396 Comprehensive Categorization: Access Control
    MemberOf CategoryCategory - a CWE entry that contains a set of other entries that share a common characteristic. 1436 OWASP Top Ten 2025 Category A01:2025 - Broken 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

    Relationship

    This overlaps insufficient comparison, verification errors, permissions, and privileges.
    + Taxonomy Mappings
    Mapped Taxonomy Name Node ID Fit Mapped Node Name
    PLOVER Unverified Ownership
    + 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 Relationships, 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 Relationships
    2023-01-31
    (CWE 4.10, 2023-01-31)     		CWE Content Team MITRE
    updated Description
    2020-02-24
    (CWE 4.0, 2020-02-24)     		CWE Content Team MITRE
    updated Relationships
    2019-01-03
    (CWE 3.2, 2019-01-03)     		CWE Content Team MITRE
    updated Relationships
    2017-11-08
    (CWE 3.0, 2017-11-08)     		CWE Content Team MITRE
    updated Applicable_Platforms, Modes_of_Introduction, Relationships
    2014-07-30
    (CWE 2.8, 2014-07-31)     		CWE Content Team MITRE
    updated Relationships
    2012-10-30
    (CWE 2.3, 2012-10-30)     		CWE Content Team MITRE
    updated Potential_Mitigations
    2012-05-11
    (CWE 2.2, 2012-05-15)     		CWE Content Team MITRE
    updated Common_Consequences, Demonstrative_Examples, Relationships
    2011-06-27
    (CWE 2.0, 2011-06-27)     		CWE Content Team MITRE
    updated Common_Consequences
    2011-06-01
    (CWE 1.13, 2011-06-01)     		CWE Content Team MITRE
    updated Common_Consequences
    2011-03-29
    (CWE 1.12, 2011-03-30)     		CWE Content Team MITRE
    updated Relationships
    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
    2009-03-10
    (CWE 1.3, 2009-03-10)     		CWE Content Team MITRE
    updated Relationships
    2008-09-08
    (CWE 1.0, 2008-09-09)     		CWE Content Team MITRE
    updated Relationships, Relationship_Notes, Taxonomy_Mappings
    2008-07-01
    (CWE 1.0, 2008-09-09)     		Eric Dalci Cigital
    updated Time_of_Introduction
    Page Last Updated: April 30, 2026