A product incorrectly assigns a privilege to a particular actor, creating an unintended sphere of control for that actor.

Resultant

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

Access Control
Gain Privileges or Assume Identity
A user can access restricted functionality and/or sensitive information that may include administrative functionality and user accounts.

Architecture and Design
Operation
Very carefully manage the setting, management, and handling of privileges. Explicitly manage trust zones in the software.

Architecture and Design
Operation
Environment Hardening
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.

The following example demonstrates the weakness.

seteuid(0);
/* do some stuff */

seteuid(getuid());

The following example demonstrates the weakness.

AccessController.doPrivileged(new PrivilegedAction() {
public Object run() {
// privileged code goes here, for example:
System.loadLibrary("awt");return null;
// nothing to return

}

This application sends a special intent with a flag that allows the receiving application to read a data file for backup purposes.

Intent intent = new Intent();intent.setAction("com.example.BackupUserData");intent.setData(file_uri);intent.addFlags(FLAG_GRANT_READ_URI_PERMISSION);sendBroadcast(intent);

public class CallReceiver extends BroadcastReceiver {@Overridepublic void onReceive(Context context, Intent intent) {Uri userData = intent.getData();stealUserData(userData);}}

Any malicious application can register to receive this intent. Because of the FLAG_GRANT_READ_URI_PERMISSION included with the intent, the malicious receiver code can read the user's data.

CVE-1999-1193
untrusted user placed in unix "wheel" group
https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-1999-1193

CVE-2005-2741
Product allows users to grant themselves certain rights that can be used to escalate privileges.
https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2005-2741

CVE-2005-2496
Product uses group ID of a user instead of the group, causing it to run with different privileges. This is resultant from some other unknown issue.
https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2005-2496

CVE-2004-0274
Product mistakenly assigns a particular status to an entity, leading to increased privileges.
https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2004-0274

System Process

Incorrect Privilege Assignment

SEC00-J
Do not allow privileged blocks to leak sensitive information across a trust boundary

SEC01-J
Do not allow tainted variables in privileged blocks

Allowed
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.
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.

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, Relationships, Taxonomy_Mappings, Weakness_Ordinalities

CWE Content Team
MITRE
2009-03-10
updated Relationships

CWE Content Team
MITRE
2009-12-28
updated Potential_Mitigations

CWE Content Team
MITRE
2010-06-21
updated Potential_Mitigations

CWE Content Team
MITRE
2011-06-01
updated Common_Consequences, Relationships, Taxonomy_Mappings

CWE Content Team
MITRE
2012-05-11
updated Common_Consequences, Demonstrative_Examples, Relationships, Taxonomy_Mappings

CWE Content Team
MITRE
2012-10-30
updated Potential_Mitigations, References

CWE Content Team
MITRE
2014-02-18
updated Applicable_Platforms, Demonstrative_Examples

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

CWE Content Team
MITRE
2019-01-03
updated Relationships, Taxonomy_Mappings

CWE Content Team
MITRE
2020-02-24
updated Relationships

CWE Content Team
MITRE
2021-03-15
updated Demonstrative_Examples

CWE Content Team
MITRE
2021-10-28
updated Relationships

CWE Content Team
MITRE
2022-10-13
updated References

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

CWE Content Team
MITRE
2023-06-29
updated Mapping_Notes

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