CWE-862: Missing Authorization

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Description

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

Extended Description

N/A

ThreatScore

Threat Mapped score: 1.8

Industry: Finiancial

Threat priority: P4 - Informational (Low)

Observed Examples (CVEs)

CVE: CVE-2022-24730

Go-based continuous deployment product does not check that a user has certain privileges to update or create an app, allowing adversaries to read sensitive repository information
CVE: CVE-2009-3168

Web application does not restrict access to admin scripts, allowing authenticated users to reset administrative passwords.
CVE: CVE-2009-3597

Web application stores database file under the web root with insufficient access control (CWE-219), allowing direct request.
CVE: CVE-2009-2282

Terminal server does not check authorization for guest access.
CVE: CVE-2008-5027

System monitoring software allows users to bypass authorization by creating custom forms.
CVE: CVE-2009-3781

Content management system does not check access permissions for private files, allowing others to view those files.
CVE: CVE-2008-6548

Product does not check the ACL of a page accessed using an "include" directive, allowing attackers to read unauthorized files.
CVE: CVE-2009-2960

Web application does not restrict access to admin scripts, allowing authenticated users to modify passwords of other users.
CVE: CVE-2009-3230

Database server does not use appropriate privileges for certain sensitive operations.
CVE: CVE-2009-2213

Gateway uses default "Allow" configuration for its authorization settings.
CVE: CVE-2009-0034

Chain: product does not properly interpret a configuration option for a system group, allowing users to gain privileges.
CVE: CVE-2008-6123

Chain: SNMP product does not properly parse a configuration option for which hosts are allowed to connect, allowing unauthorized IP addresses to connect.
CVE: CVE-2008-7109

Chain: reliance on client-side security (CWE-602) allows attackers to bypass authorization using a custom client.
CVE: CVE-2008-3424

Chain: product does not properly handle wildcards in an authorization policy list, allowing unintended access.
CVE: CVE-2005-1036

Chain: Bypass of access restrictions due to improper authorization (CWE-862) of a user results from an improperly initialized (CWE-909) I/O permission bitmap
CVE: CVE-2008-4577

ACL-based protection mechanism treats negative access rights as if they are positive, allowing bypass of intended restrictions.
CVE: CVE-2007-2925

Default ACL list for a DNS server does not set certain ACLs, allowing unauthorized DNS queries.
CVE: CVE-2006-6679

Product relies on the X-Forwarded-For HTTP header for authorization, allowing unintended access by spoofing the header.
CVE: CVE-2005-3623

OS kernel does not check for a certain privilege before setting ACLs for files.
CVE: CVE-2005-2801

Chain: file-system code performs an incorrect comparison (CWE-697), preventing default ACLs from being properly applied.
CVE: CVE-2001-1155

Chain: product does not properly check the result of a reverse DNS lookup because of operator precedence (CWE-783), allowing bypass of DNS-based access restrictions.
CVE: CVE-2020-17533

Chain: unchecked return value (CWE-252) of some functions for policy enforcement leads to authorization bypass (CWE-862)

Related Attack Patterns (CAPEC)

CAPEC-665

Attack TTPs

T1542.002 — Component Firmware (persistence, defense-evasion)
T1556 — Modify Authentication Process (credential-access, defense-evasion, persistence)
T1211 — Exploitation for Defense Evasion (defense-evasion)

Malware

APTs (Intrusion Sets)

Modes of Introduction

Phase	Note
Architecture and Design	OMISSION: This weakness is caused by missing a security tactic during the architecture and design phase. Authorization weaknesses may arise when a single-user application is ported to a multi-user environment.
Implementation	A developer may introduce authorization weaknesses because of a lack of understanding about the underlying technologies. For example, a developer may assume that attackers cannot modify certain inputs such as headers or cookies.
Operation	N/A

Common Consequences

Impact: Read Application Data, Read Files or Directories — Notes: An attacker could read sensitive data, either by reading the data directly from a data store that is not restricted, or by accessing insufficiently-protected, privileged functionality to read the data.
Impact: Modify Application Data, Modify Files or Directories — Notes: An attacker could modify sensitive data, either by writing the data directly to a data store that is not restricted, or by accessing insufficiently-protected, privileged functionality to write the data.
Impact: Gain Privileges or Assume Identity, Bypass Protection Mechanism — Notes: An attacker could gain privileges by modifying or reading critical data directly, or by accessing privileged functionality.
Impact: DoS: Crash, Exit, or Restart, DoS: Resource Consumption (CPU), DoS: Resource Consumption (Memory), DoS: Resource Consumption (Other) — Notes: An attacker could gain unauthorized access to resources on the system and excessively consume those resources, leading to a denial of service.

Potential Mitigations

Architecture and Design: Divide the product into anonymous, normal, privileged, and administrative areas. Reduce the attack surface by carefully mapping roles with data and functionality. Use role-based access control (RBAC) [REF-229] to enforce the roles at the appropriate boundaries. Note that this approach may not protect against horizontal authorization, i.e., it will not protect a user from attacking others with the same role. (N/A)
Architecture and Design: Ensure that access control checks are performed related to the business logic. These checks may be different than the access control checks that are applied to more generic resources such as files, connections, processes, memory, and database records. For example, a database may restrict access for medical records to a specific database user, but each record might only be intended to be accessible to the patient and the patient's doctor [REF-7]. (N/A)
Architecture and Design: Use a vetted library or framework that does not allow this weakness to occur or provides constructs that make this weakness easier to avoid. For example, consider using authorization frameworks such as the JAAS Authorization Framework [REF-233] and the OWASP ESAPI Access Control feature [REF-45]. (N/A)
Architecture and Design: For web applications, make sure that the access control mechanism is enforced correctly at the server side on every page. Users should not be able to access any unauthorized functionality or information by simply requesting direct access to that page. One way to do this is to ensure that all pages containing sensitive information are not cached, and that all such pages restrict access to requests that are accompanied by an active and authenticated session token associated with a user who has the required permissions to access that page. (N/A)
System Configuration: Use the access control capabilities of your operating system and server environment and define your access control lists accordingly. Use a "default deny" policy when defining these ACLs. (N/A)

Applicable Platforms

None (Not Language-Specific, Undetermined)

Demonstrative Examples

Intro: This function runs an arbitrary SQL query on a given database, returning the result of the query.

Body: While this code is careful to avoid SQL Injection, the function does not confirm the user sending the query is authorized to do so. An attacker may be able to obtain sensitive employee information from the database.

function runEmployeeQuery($dbName, $name){ mysql_select_db($dbName,$globalDbHandle) or die("Could not open Database".$dbName); //Use a prepared statement to avoid CWE-89 $preparedStatement = $globalDbHandle->prepare('SELECT * FROM employees WHERE name = :name'); $preparedStatement->execute(array(':name' => $name)); return $preparedStatement->fetchAll(); } /.../ $employeeRecord = runEmployeeQuery('EmployeeDB',$_GET['EmployeeName']);

Intro: The following program could be part of a bulletin board system that allows users to send private messages to each other. This program intends to authenticate the user before deciding whether a private message should be displayed. Assume that LookupMessageObject() ensures that the $id argument is numeric, constructs a filename based on that id, and reads the message details from that file. Also assume that the program stores all private messages for all users in the same directory.

Body: While the program properly exits if authentication fails, it does not ensure that the message is addressed to the user. As a result, an authenticated attacker could provide any arbitrary identifier and read private messages that were intended for other users.

sub DisplayPrivateMessage { my($id) = @_; my $Message = LookupMessageObject($id); print "From: " . encodeHTML($Message->{from}) . "<br>\n"; print "Subject: " . encodeHTML($Message->{subject}) . "\n"; print "<hr>\n"; print "Body: " . encodeHTML($Message->{body}) . "\n"; } my $q = new CGI; # For purposes of this example, assume that CWE-309 and # CWE-523 do not apply. if (! AuthenticateUser($q->param('username'), $q->param('password'))) { ExitError("invalid username or password"); } my $id = $q->param('id'); DisplayPrivateMessage($id);

Notes

Terminology: Assuming a user with a given identity, authorization is the process of determining whether that user can access a given resource, based on the user's privileges and any permissions or other access-control specifications that apply to the resource.

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