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.

Primary

Resultant

Architecture and Design

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

Operation

Confidentiality
Read Application Data
High
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.

Integrity
Modify Application Data
Medium
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.

Other
Varies by Context
The consequences may vary widely depending on how the product uses the affected resource.

Discouraged
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.
Closely analyze the specific mistake that is allowing the resource to be exposed, and perform a CWE mapping for that mistake.

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.

CWE Content Team
MITRE
2008-04-11
Draft 9
2008-04-11

Eric Dalci
Cigital
2008-07-01
updated Time_of_Introduction

CWE Content Team
MITRE
2008-09-08
updated Relationships, Other_Notes

CWE Content Team
MITRE
2008-11-24
updated Relationships

CWE Content Team
MITRE
2009-05-27
updated Relationships

CWE Content Team
MITRE
2009-07-22
Critical
Clarified description to include permissions.

CWE Content Team
MITRE
2009-07-27
updated Description, Relationships

CWE Content Team
MITRE
2009-10-29
updated Other_Notes, Theoretical_Notes

CWE Content Team
MITRE
2009-12-28
updated Relationships

CWE Content Team
MITRE
2010-09-27
updated Relationships

CWE Content Team
MITRE
2011-03-29
updated Relationships

CWE Content Team
MITRE
2011-06-01
updated Common_Consequences

CWE Content Team
MITRE
2012-05-11
updated Relationships

CWE Content Team
MITRE
2013-02-21
updated Relationships

CWE Content Team
MITRE
2013-07-17
updated Relationships

CWE Content Team
MITRE
2014-06-23
updated Relationships

CWE Content Team
MITRE
2014-07-30
updated Relationships

CWE Content Team
MITRE
2015-12-07
updated Relationships

CWE Content Team
MITRE
2017-01-19
updated Relationships

CWE Content Team
MITRE
2017-11-08
updated Modes_of_Introduction, Relationships, Relevant_Properties

CWE Content Team
MITRE
2019-01-03
updated Relationships

CWE Content Team
MITRE
2019-06-20
updated Relationships

CWE Content Team
MITRE
2020-02-24
updated Relationships

CWE Content Team
MITRE
2020-06-25
updated Relationships

CWE Content Team
MITRE
2021-03-15
updated Relationships

CWE Content Team
MITRE
2021-10-28
updated Relationships

CWE Content Team
MITRE
2022-04-28
updated Relationships

CWE Content Team
MITRE
2022-10-13
updated References

CWE Content Team
MITRE
2023-04-27
updated Relationships

CWE Content Team
MITRE
2023-06-29
updated Mapping_Notes

CWE Content Team
MITRE
2025-04-03
4.17
2025-04-03
updated Common_Consequences, Relationships

CWE Content Team
MITRE
2025-12-11
4.19
2025-12-11
updated Applicable_Platforms, Relationships, Weakness_Ordinalities