COMMON WEAKNESS ENUMERATIONDraft

CWE-668

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.

Abstraction

Class

Structure

Simple

Likelihood of Exploit

Medium

Understand the problem

What is the problem?

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

Extended description

Resources such as files and directories may be inadvertently exposed through mechanisms such as insecure permissions, or when a program accidentally operates on the wrong object. For example, a program may intend that private files can only be provided to a specific user. This effectively defines a control sphere that is intended to prevent attackers from accessing these private files. If the file permissions are insecure, then parties other than the user will be able to access those files. A separate control sphere might effectively require that the user can only access the private files, but not any other files on the system. If the program does not ensure that the user is only requesting private files, then the user might be able to access other files on the system. In either case, the end result is that a resource has been exposed to the wrong party.

Root cause

How and when does the problem arise?

Lifecycle phase

Architecture and Design

Lifecycle phase

Implementation

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

Lifecycle phase

Operation

Risk

What does successful exploitation lead to?

Read Application Data

Affected security scopes: Confidentiality

An adversary that gains access to a resource exposed to a wrong sphere could potentially retrieve private data from that resource, thus breaking the intended confidentiality of that data.
Modify Application Data

Affected security scopes: Integrity

An adversary that gains access to a resource exposed to a wrong sphere could potentially modify data held within that resource, thus breaking the intended integrity of that data and causing the system relying on that resource to make unintended decisions.
Varies by Context

Affected security scopes: Other

The consequences may vary widely depending on how the product uses the affected resource.

Defence

How is it prevented and fixed?

  • Follow secure coding guidelines for input handling and boundary checking.
  • Enforce strict security reviews and automated static analysis (SAST) checks.
CWE-668: Common Weakness Enumeration Entry CWE-668 · DayBreach Sözlük · DayBreach