COMMON WEAKNESS ENUMERATIONDraft

CWE-279

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.

Abstraction

Variant

Structure

Simple

Likelihood of Exploit

Medium

Understand the problem

What is the problem?

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.

Root cause

How and when does the problem arise?

Lifecycle phase

Implementation

REALIZATION: This weakness is caused during implementation of an architectural security tactic.

Lifecycle phase

Architecture and Design

Lifecycle phase

Operation

Risk

What does successful exploitation lead to?

Read Application DataModify Application Data

Affected security scopes: Confidentiality, Integrity

Defence

How is it prevented and fixed?

Architecture and Design · Operation

Defence to apply across several lifecycle phases

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

Architecture and Design

Separation of Privilege

Detail
Compartmentalize the system to have "safe" areas where trust boundaries can be unambiguously drawn. Do not allow sensitive data to go outside of the trust boundary and always be careful when interfacing with a compartment outside of the safe area. Ensure that appropriate compartmentalization is built into the system design, and the compartmentalization allows for and reinforces privilege separation functionality. Architects and designers should rely on the principle of least privilege to decide the appropriate time to use privileges and the time to drop privileges.

Verification

How is it detected?

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.)