CWE-749: Exposed Dangerous Method or Function

Description:
The product provides an Applications Programming Interface (API) or similar interface for interaction with external actors, but the interface includes a dangerous method or function that is not properly restricted.

Extended Description:
This weakness can lead to a wide variety of resultant weaknesses, depending on the behavior of the exposed method. It can apply to any number of technologies and approaches, such as ActiveX controls, Java functions, IOCTLs, and so on. 
             The exposure can occur in a few different ways: 
             
                The function/method was never intended to be exposed to outside actors. 
                The function/method was only intended to be accessible to a limited set of actors, such as Internet-based access from a single web site.

Affected languages: Not Language-Specific
Parent weaknesses: CWE-284

Consequences:
  - Integrity: Gain Privileges or Assume Identity

Detection methods:
  - 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 havin

Mitigations:
  - [Architecture and Design] If you must expose a method, make sure to perform input validation on all arguments, limit access to authorized parties, and protect against all possible vulnerabilities.
  - [Architecture and Design] Identify all exposed functionality. Explicitly list all functionality that must be exposed to some user or set of users. Identify which functionality may be: 
                      
                         accessible to all users 
                         restricted to a small set of privileged use

Demonstrative examples:
In the following Java example the method removeDatabase will delete the database with the name specified in the input parameter.
The method in this example is declared public and therefore is exposed to any class in the application. Deleting a database should be considered a critical operation within an application and access to this potentially dangerous method should be restricted. Within Java this can be accomplished simply by declaring the method private thereby exposing it only to the enclosing class as in the following example.
public void removeDatabase(String databaseName) { 
                         try { 
                               Statement stmt = conn.createStatement(); stmt.execute("DROP DATABASE " + databaseName); 
                               
                         

These Android and iOS applications intercept URL loading within a WebView and perform special actions if a particular URL scheme is used, thus allowing the Javascript within the WebView to communicate with the application:
A call into native code can then be initiated by passing parameters within the URL:
// Android 
                      @Override public boolean shouldOverrideUrlLoading(WebView view, String url){ 
                         if (url.substring(0,14).equalsIgnoreCase("examplescheme:")){ if(url.substring(14,25).equalsIgnoreCase("getUserInfo")){ writeDataToView(view, UserData); return false; } else{ return true; } } 
                      }
// iOS 
                      -(BOOL) webView:(UIWebView *)exWebView shouldStartLoadWithRequest:(NSURLRequest *)exRequest navigationType:(UI

Real-world examples:
  - CVE-2007-6382: arbitrary Java code execution via exposed method
  - CVE-2007-1112: security tool ActiveX control allows download or upload of files