Authorize Actors

A category in the Common Weakness Enumeration published by The MITRE Corporation.


Summary

Categories in the Common Weakness Enumeration (CWE) group entries based on some common characteristic or attribute.

Weaknesses in this category are related to the design and architecture of a system's authorization components. Frequently these deal with enforcing that agents have the required permissions before performing certain operations, such as modifying data. The weaknesses in this category could lead to a degradation of quality of the authorization capability if they are not addressed when designing or implementing a secure architecture.

Weaknesses

Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling

The product allocates a reusable resource or group of resources on behalf of an actor without imposing any restrictions on the size or number of resources that can be ...

Authorization Bypass Through User-Controlled Key

The system's authorization functionality does not prevent one user from gaining access to another user's data or record by modifying the key value identifying the data.

Authorization Bypass Through User-Controlled SQL Primary Key

The product uses a database table that includes records that should not be accessible to an actor, but it executes a SQL statement with a primary key that can be contr...

Channel Accessible by Non-Endpoint

The product does not adequately verify the identity of actors at both ends of a communication channel, or does not adequately ensure the integrity of the channel, in a...

Direct Request ('Forced Browsing')

The web application does not adequately enforce appropriate authorization on all restricted URLs, scripts, or files.

Exposed IOCTL with Insufficient Access Control

The product implements an IOCTL with functionality that should be restricted, but it does not properly enforce access control for the IOCTL.

Exposure of Access Control List Files to an Unauthorized Control Sphere

The product stores access control list files in a directory or other container that is accessible to actors outside of the intended control sphere.

Exposure of Backup File to an Unauthorized Control Sphere

A backup file is stored in a directory or archive that is made accessible to unauthorized actors.

Exposure of Core Dump File to an Unauthorized Control Sphere

The product generates a core dump file in a directory, archive, or other resource that is stored, transferred, or otherwise made accessible to unauthorized actors.

Exposure of File Descriptor to Unintended Control Sphere ('File Descriptor Leak')

A process does not close sensitive file descriptors before invoking a child process, which allows the child to perform unauthorized I/O operations using those descript...

Exposure of Private Personal Information to an Unauthorized Actor

The product does not properly prevent a person's private, personal information from being accessed by actors who either (1) are not explicitly authorized to access the...

Exposure of Resource to Wrong Sphere

The product exposes a resource to the wrong control sphere, providing unintended actors with inappropriate access to the resource.

Exposure of Version-Control Repository to an Unauthorized Control Sphere

The product stores a CVS, git, or other repository in a directory, archive, or other resource that is stored, transferred, or otherwise made accessible to unauthorized...

External Control of Critical State Data

The product stores security-critical state information about its users, or the product itself, in a location that is accessible to unauthorized actors.

External Control of System or Configuration Setting

One or more system settings or configuration elements can be externally controlled by a user.

External Influence of Sphere Definition

The product does not prevent the definition of control spheres from external actors.

Files or Directories Accessible to External Parties

The product makes files or directories accessible to unauthorized actors, even though they should not be.

Improper Access Control

The product does not restrict or incorrectly restricts access to a resource from an unauthorized actor.

Improper Authorization

The product does not perform or incorrectly performs an authorization check when an actor attempts to access a resource or perform an action.

Improper Authorization in Handler for Custom URL Scheme

The product uses a handler for a custom URL scheme, but it does not properly restrict which actors can invoke the handler using the scheme.

Improper Check for Dropped Privileges

The product attempts to drop privileges but does not check or incorrectly checks to see if the drop succeeded.

Improper Control of Document Type Definition

The product does not restrict a reference to a Document Type Definition (DTD) to the intended control sphere. This might allow attackers to reference arbitrary DTDs, p...

Improper Handling of Insufficient Permissions or Privileges

The product does not handle or incorrectly handles when it has insufficient privileges to access resources or functionality as specified by their permissions. This may...

Improper Handling of Insufficient Privileges

The product does not handle or incorrectly handles when it has insufficient privileges to perform an operation, leading to resultant weaknesses.

Improper Isolation or Compartmentalization

The product does not properly compartmentalize or isolate functionality, processes, or resources that require different privilege levels, rights, or permissions.

Improper Ownership Management

The product assigns the wrong ownership, or does not properly verify the ownership, of an object or resource.

Improper Preservation of Permissions

The product does not preserve permissions or incorrectly preserves permissions when copying, restoring, or sharing objects, which can cause them to have less restricti...

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.

Improper Restriction of Communication Channel to Intended Endpoints

The product establishes a communication channel to (or from) an endpoint for privileged or protected operations, but it does not properly ensure that it is communicati...

Incorrect Authorization

The product performs an authorization check when an actor attempts to access a resource or perform an action, but it does not correctly perform the check. This allows ...

Incorrect Behavior Order: Authorization Before Parsing and Canonicalization

If a web server does not fully parse requested URLs before it examines them for authorization, it may be possible for an attacker to bypass authorization protection.

Incorrect Default Permissions

During installation, installed file permissions are set to allow anyone to modify those files.

Incorrect Execution-Assigned Permissions

While it is executing, the product sets the permissions of an object in a way that violates the intended permissions that have been specified by the user.

Incorrect Ownership Assignment

The product assigns an owner to a resource, but the owner is outside of the intended control sphere.

Incorrect Permission Assignment for Critical Resource

The product specifies permissions for a security-critical resource in a way that allows that resource to be read or modified by unintended actors.

Incorrect Privilege Assignment

A product incorrectly assigns a privilege to a particular actor, creating an unintended sphere of control for that actor.

Incorrect Resource Transfer Between Spheres

The product does not properly transfer a resource/behavior to another sphere, or improperly imports a resource/behavior from another sphere, in a manner that provides ...

Incorrect User Management

The product does not properly manage a user within its environment.

Insecure Inherited Permissions

A product defines a set of insecure permissions that are inherited by objects that are created by the program.

Insertion of Sensitive Information into Externally-Accessible File or Directory

The product places sensitive information into files or directories that are accessible to actors who are allowed to have access to the files, but not to the sensitive ...

Lack of Administrator Control over Security

The product uses security features in a way that prevents the product's administrator from tailoring security settings to reflect the environment in which the product ...

Least Privilege Violation

The elevated privilege level required to perform operations such as chroot() should be dropped immediately after the operation is performed.

Missing Authorization

The product does not perform an authorization check when an actor attempts to access a resource or perform an action.

Permissive Cross-domain Policy with Untrusted Domains

The product uses a cross-domain policy file that includes domains that should not be trusted.

Predictable from Observable State

A number or object is predictable based on observations that the attacker can make about the state of the system or network, such as time, process ID, etc.

Privilege Chaining

Two distinct privileges, roles, capabilities, or rights can be combined in a way that allows an entity to perform unsafe actions that would not be allowed without that...

Privilege Context Switching Error

The product does not properly manage privileges while it is switching between different contexts that have different privileges or spheres of control.

Privilege Defined With Unsafe Actions

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.

Privilege Dropping / Lowering Errors

The product does not drop privileges before passing control of a resource to an actor that does not have those privileges.

Process Control

Executing commands or loading libraries from an untrusted source or in an untrusted environment can cause an application to execute malicious commands (and payloads) o...

Reliance on Security Through Obscurity

The product uses a protection mechanism whose strength depends heavily on its obscurity, such that knowledge of its algorithms or key data is sufficient to defeat the ...

Storage of File With Sensitive Data Under FTP Root

The product stores sensitive data under the FTP server root with insufficient access control, which might make it accessible to untrusted parties.

Storage of File with Sensitive Data Under Web Root

The product stores sensitive data under the web document root with insufficient access control, which might make it accessible to untrusted parties.

Storage of Sensitive Data in a Mechanism without Access Control

The product stores sensitive information in a file system or device that does not have built-in access control.

Unprotected Alternate Channel

The product protects a primary channel, but it does not use the same level of protection for an alternate channel.

Unprotected Primary Channel

The product uses a primary channel for administration or restricted functionality, but it does not properly protect the channel.

Unrestricted Upload of File with Dangerous Type

The product allows the attacker to upload or transfer files of dangerous types that can be automatically processed within the product's environment.

Untrusted Search Path

The product searches for critical resources using an externally-supplied search path that can point to resources that are not under the product's direct control.

Unverified Ownership

The product does not properly verify that a critical resource is owned by the proper entity.

Use of Non-Canonical URL Paths for Authorization Decisions

The product defines policy namespaces and makes authorization decisions based on the assumption that a URL is canonical. This can allow a non-canonical URL to bypass t...

Concepts

Architectural Concepts

This view organizes weaknesses according to common architectural security tactics. It is intended to assist architects in identifying potential mistakes that can be ma...

See Also

  1. A Catalog of Security Architecture Weaknesses.

    2017 IEEE International Conference on Software Architecture (ICSA)

  2. Understanding Software Vulnerabilities Related to Architectural Security Tactics: An Empirical Investigation of Chromium, PHP and Thunderbird.

    2017 IEEE International Conference on Software Architecture (ICSA)


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