The product does not handle or incorrectly handles when it has insufficient privileges to perform an operation, leading to resultant weaknesses.

Primary

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

Operation

Other
Other
Alter Execution Logic

Automated Static Analysis
Automated static analysis, commonly referred to as Static Application Security Testing (SAST), can find some instances of this weakness by analyzing source code (or binary/compiled code) without having to execute it. Typically, this is done by building a model of data flow and control flow, then searching for potentially-vulnerable patterns that connect "sources" (origins of input) with "sinks" (destinations where the data interacts with external components, a lower layer such as the OS, etc.)
High

CVE-2001-1564
System limits are not properly enforced after privileges are dropped.
https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2001-1564

CVE-2005-3286
Firewall crashes when it can't read a critical memory block that was protected by a malicious process.
https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2005-3286

CVE-2005-1641
Does not give admin sufficient privileges to overcome otherwise legitimate user actions.
https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2005-1641

Insufficient privileges

Discouraged
This CWE entry could be deprecated in a future version of CWE.
See maintenance notes.

CWE-280 and CWE-274 are too similar. It is likely that CWE-274 will be deprecated in the future.
Overlaps dropped privileges, insufficient permissions.
This has a layering relationship with Unchecked Error Condition and Unchecked Return Value.
Within the context of vulnerability theory, privileges and permissions are two sides of the same coin. Privileges are associated with actors, and permissions are associated with resources. To perform access control, at some point the product makes a decision about whether the actor (and the privileges that have been assigned to that actor) is allowed to access the resource (based on the permissions that have been specified for that resource).

PLOVER
2006-07-19
Draft 3
2006-07-19

Eric Dalci
Cigital
2008-07-01
updated Time_of_Introduction

CWE Content Team
MITRE
2008-09-08
updated Description, Maintenance_Notes, Relationships, Relationship_Notes, Taxonomy_Mappings, Weakness_Ordinalities

CWE Content Team
MITRE
2009-03-10
updated Maintenance_Notes, Theoretical_Notes

CWE Content Team
MITRE
2009-05-27
updated Description, Name

CWE Content Team
MITRE
2011-06-01
updated Common_Consequences

CWE Content Team
MITRE
2012-05-11
updated Relationships

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

CWE Content Team
MITRE
2021-03-15
updated Relationship_Notes, Theoretical_Notes

CWE Content Team
MITRE
2023-01-31
updated Description, Relationships, Theoretical_Notes

CWE Content Team
MITRE
2023-04-27
updated Detection_Factors, Relationships, Time_of_Introduction

CWE Content Team
MITRE
2023-06-29
updated Mapping_Notes

CWE Content Team
MITRE
2024-02-29
4.14
2024-02-29
updated Mapping_Notes

CWE Content Team
MITRE
2025-12-11
4.19
2025-12-11
updated Relationships

Insufficient Privileges
Failure to Handle Insufficient Privileges