CWE-268 Detail

CWE-268

Privilege Chaining
High
Draft
2006-07-19
00h00 +00:00
2023-06-29
00h00 +00:00
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Name: 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 combination.

General Informations

Modes Of Introduction

Architecture and Design
Implementation : REALIZATION: This weakness is caused during implementation of an architectural security tactic.
Operation

Applicable Platforms

Language

Class: Not Language-Specific (Undetermined)

Common Consequences

Scope Impact Likelihood
Access ControlGain Privileges or Assume Identity

Note: A user can be given or gain access rights of another user. This can give the user unauthorized access to sensitive information including the access information of another user.

Observed Examples

References Description

CVE-2005-1736

Chaining of user rights.

CVE-2002-1772

Gain certain rights via privilege chaining in alternate channel.

CVE-2005-1973

Application is allowed to assign extra permissions to itself.

CVE-2003-0640

"operator" user can overwrite usernames and passwords to gain admin privileges.

Potential Mitigations

Phases : Architecture and Design
Consider following the principle of separation of privilege. Require multiple conditions to be met before permitting access to a system resource.
Phases : Architecture and Design // Operation
Very carefully manage the setting, management, and handling of privileges. Explicitly manage trust zones in the software.
Phases : Architecture and Design // Operation
Run your code using the lowest privileges that are required to accomplish the necessary tasks [REF-76]. If possible, create isolated accounts with limited privileges that are only used for a single task. That way, a successful attack will not immediately give the attacker access to the rest of the software or its environment. For example, database applications rarely need to run as the database administrator, especially in day-to-day operations.

Vulnerability Mapping Notes

Justification : This CWE entry is at the Base level of abstraction, which is a preferred level of abstraction for mapping to the root causes of vulnerabilities.
Comment : Carefully read both the name and description to ensure that this mapping is an appropriate fit. Do not try to 'force' a mapping to a lower-level Base/Variant simply to comply with this preferred level of abstraction.

NotesNotes

There is some conceptual overlap with Unsafe Privilege.

References

REF-76

Least Privilege
Sean Barnum, Michael Gegick.
https://web.archive.org/web/20211209014121/https://www.cisa.gov/uscert/bsi/articles/knowledge/principles/least-privilege

Submission

Name Organization Date Date release Version
PLOVER 2006-07-19 +00:00 2006-07-19 +00:00 Draft 3

Modifications

Name Organization Date Comment
Eric Dalci Cigital 2008-07-01 +00:00 updated Time_of_Introduction
CWE Content Team MITRE 2008-09-08 +00:00 updated Relationships, Other_Notes, Relationship_Notes, Taxonomy_Mappings, Weakness_Ordinalities
CWE Content Team MITRE 2009-03-10 +00:00 updated Relationships
CWE Content Team MITRE 2009-12-28 +00:00 updated Other_Notes, Potential_Mitigations, Research_Gaps
CWE Content Team MITRE 2010-06-21 +00:00 updated Potential_Mitigations
CWE Content Team MITRE 2011-06-01 +00:00 updated Common_Consequences
CWE Content Team MITRE 2012-05-11 +00:00 updated Common_Consequences, Demonstrative_Examples, Relationships
CWE Content Team MITRE 2012-10-30 +00:00 updated Potential_Mitigations, References
CWE Content Team MITRE 2017-11-08 +00:00 updated Applicable_Platforms, Causal_Nature, Modes_of_Introduction, References, Relationships
CWE Content Team MITRE 2019-09-19 +00:00 updated Demonstrative_Examples
CWE Content Team MITRE 2022-04-28 +00:00 updated Research_Gaps
CWE Content Team MITRE 2022-10-13 +00:00 updated References
CWE Content Team MITRE 2023-04-27 +00:00 updated References, Relationships
CWE Content Team MITRE 2023-06-29 +00:00 updated Mapping_Notes, Relationships