CWE - CWE-269: Improper Privilege Management (2.10)

Weakness ID: 269

Abstraction: Base

Status: Incomplete

Presentation Filter:

Description

Description Summary

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

Time of Introduction

Architecture and Design
Implementation
Operation

Applicable Platforms

Languages

All

Common Consequences

Scope	Effect
Access Control	Technical Impact: Gain privileges / assume identity

Likelihood of Exploit

Medium

Observed Examples

Reference	Description
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.

Potential Mitigations

Phases: Architecture and Design; Operation

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

Phase: Architecture and Design

Strategy: Separation of Privilege

Follow the principle of least privilege when assigning access rights to entities in a software system.

Phase: 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.

Weakness Ordinalities

Ordinality	Description
Primary	(where the weakness exists independent of other weaknesses)

Relationships

Nature	Type	ID	Name	View(s) this relationship pertains to
ChildOf	Category	265	Privilege / Sandbox Issues	Development Concepts699
ChildOf	Weakness Class	284	Improper Access Control	Development Concepts (primary)699 Research Concepts (primary)1000
ChildOf	Category	901	SFP Primary Cluster: Privilege	Software Fault Pattern (SFP) Clusters (primary)888
ParentOf	Weakness Class	250	Execution with Unnecessary Privileges	Research Concepts1000
ParentOf	Weakness Base	266	Incorrect Privilege Assignment	Research Concepts (primary)1000
ParentOf	Weakness Base	267	Privilege Defined With Unsafe Actions	Research Concepts (primary)1000
ParentOf	Weakness Base	268	Privilege Chaining	Research Concepts (primary)1000
ParentOf	Weakness Base	270	Privilege Context Switching Error	Development Concepts (primary)699 Research Concepts (primary)1000
ParentOf	Weakness Class	271	Privilege Dropping / Lowering Errors	Research Concepts (primary)1000
ParentOf	Weakness Base	274	Improper Handling of Insufficient Privileges	Research Concepts1000
ParentOf	Weakness Base	648	Incorrect Use of Privileged APIs	Research Concepts (primary)1000

Causal Nature

Explicit

Taxonomy Mappings

Mapped Taxonomy Name	Node ID	Fit	Mapped Node Name
PLOVER			Privilege Management Error

Related Attack Patterns

CAPEC-ID	Attack Pattern Name	(CAPEC Version: 2.9)
CAPEC-58	Restful Privilege Elevation

References

[REF-17] Michael Howard, David LeBlanc and John Viega. "24 Deadly Sins of Software Security". "Sin 16: Executing Code With Too Much Privilege." Page 243. McGraw-Hill. 2010.

[REF-7] Mark Dowd, John McDonald and Justin Schuh. "The Art of Software Security Assessment". Chapter 9, "Dropping Privileges Permanently", Page 479.. 1st Edition. Addison Wesley. 2006.

Maintenance Notes

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-396).

Content History

Submissions
Submission Date	Submitter	Organization	Source
	PLOVER		Externally Mined

Modifications
Modification Date	Modifier	Organization	Source
2008-07-01	Eric Dalci	Cigital	External
2008-07-01	updated Time_of_Introduction
2008-09-08		CWE Team	Internal
2008-09-08	Moved this entry higher up in the Research view.
2008-09-08	CWE Content Team	MITRE	Internal
2008-09-08	updated Description, Maintenance_Notes, Name, Relationships, Taxonomy_Mappings, Weakness_Ordinalities
2009-05-27	CWE Content Team	MITRE	Internal
2009-05-27	updated Name
2009-12-28	CWE Content Team	MITRE	Internal
2009-12-28	updated Potential_Mitigations
2010-06-21	CWE Content Team	MITRE	Internal
2010-06-21	updated Potential_Mitigations
2011-03-29	CWE Content Team	MITRE	Internal
2011-03-29	updated Description, Relationships
2011-06-01	CWE Content Team	MITRE	Internal
2011-06-01	updated Common_Consequences
2012-05-11	CWE Content Team	MITRE	Internal
2012-05-11	updated References, Relationships
2012-10-30	CWE Content Team	MITRE	Internal
2012-10-30	updated Potential_Mitigations
2013-02-21	CWE Content Team	MITRE	Internal
2013-02-21	updated Potential_Mitigations
Previous Entry Names
Change Date	Previous Entry Name
2008-09-09	Privilege Management Error

2009-05-27	Insecure Privilege Management


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Common Weakness Enumeration

CWE-269: Improper Privilege Management