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

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.

Modes Of Introduction

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

Common Consequences

Vulnerability Mapping Notes

Rationale : CWE-668 is high-level and is often misused as a catch-all when lower-level CWE IDs might be applicable. It is sometimes used for low-information vulnerability reports [REF-1287]. It is a level-1 Class (i.e., a child of a Pillar). It is not useful for trend analysis.
Comments : Closely analyze the specific mistake that is allowing the resource to be exposed, and perform a CWE mapping for that mistake.

Notes

A "control sphere" is a set of resources and behaviors that are accessible to a single actor, or a group of actors. A product's security model will typically define multiple spheres, possibly implicitly. For example, a server might define one sphere for "administrators" who can create new user accounts with subdirectories under /home/server/, and a second sphere might cover the set of users who can create or delete files within their own subdirectories. A third sphere might be "users who are authenticated to the operating system on which the product is installed." Each sphere has different sets of actors and allowable behaviors.

References

REF-1287

Supplemental Details - 2022 CWE Top 25
MITRE.
https://cwe.mitre.org/top25/archive/2022/2022_cwe_top25_supplemental.html#problematicMappingDetails

Submission

Modifications