{"@ID": "272", "@Name": "Least Privilege Violation", "@Abstraction": "Base", "@Structure": "Simple", "@Status": "Incomplete", "Description": "The elevated privilege level required to perform operations such as chroot() should be dropped immediately after the operation is performed.", "Related_Weaknesses": {"Related_Weakness": {"@Nature": "ChildOf", "@CWE_ID": "271", "@View_ID": "1000", "@Ordinal": "Primary"}}, "Weakness_Ordinalities": {"Weakness_Ordinality": {"Ordinality": "Primary"}}, "Applicable_Platforms": {"Language": {"@Class": "Not Language-Specific", "@Prevalence": "Undetermined"}}, "Modes_Of_Introduction": {"Introduction": [{"Phase": "Implementation", "Note": "REALIZATION: This weakness is caused during implementation of an architectural security tactic."}, {"Phase": "Operation"}]}, "Common_Consequences": {"Consequence": {"Scope": ["Access Control", "Confidentiality"], "Impact": ["Gain Privileges or Assume Identity", "Read Application Data", "Read Files or Directories"], "Note": "An attacker may be able to access resources with the elevated privilege that could not be accessed with the attacker's original privileges. This is particularly likely in conjunction with another flaw, such as a buffer overflow."}}, "Detection_Methods": {"Detection_Method": [{"Method": "Automated Static Analysis - Binary or Bytecode", "Description": {"xhtml:p": "According to SOAR [REF-1479], the following detection techniques may be useful:", "xhtml:div": {"@style": "margin-left:1em;", "xhtml:div": "Cost effective for partial coverage:", "xhtml:ul": {"xhtml:li": "Compare binary / bytecode to application permission manifest"}}}, "Effectiveness": "SOAR Partial"}, {"Method": "Dynamic Analysis with Automated Results Interpretation", "Description": {"xhtml:p": "According to SOAR [REF-1479], the following detection techniques may be useful:", "xhtml:div": {"@style": "margin-left:1em;", "xhtml:div": "Cost effective for partial coverage:", "xhtml:ul": {"xhtml:li": "Host-based Vulnerability Scanners - Examine configuration for flaws, verifying that audit mechanisms work, ensure host configuration meets certain predefined criteria"}}}, "Effectiveness": "SOAR Partial"}, {"Method": "Manual Static Analysis - Source Code", "Description": {"xhtml:p": "According to SOAR [REF-1479], the following detection techniques may be useful:", "xhtml:div": {"@style": "margin-left:1em;", "xhtml:div": ["Highly cost effective:", "Cost effective for partial coverage:"], "xhtml:ul": [{"xhtml:li": "Manual Source Code Review (not inspections)"}, {"xhtml:li": "Focused Manual Spotcheck - Focused manual analysis of source"}]}}, "Effectiveness": "High"}, {"Method": "Automated Static Analysis - Source Code", "Description": {"xhtml:p": "According to SOAR [REF-1479], the following detection techniques may be useful:", "xhtml:div": {"@style": "margin-left:1em;", "xhtml:div": "Cost effective for partial coverage:", "xhtml:ul": {"xhtml:li": ["Source code Weakness Analyzer", "Context-configured Source Code Weakness Analyzer"]}}}, "Effectiveness": "SOAR Partial"}, {"Method": "Automated Static Analysis", "Description": {"xhtml:p": "According to SOAR [REF-1479], the following detection techniques may be useful:", "xhtml:div": {"@style": "margin-left:1em;", "xhtml:div": "Cost effective for partial coverage:", "xhtml:ul": {"xhtml:li": "Permission Manifest Analysis"}}}, "Effectiveness": "SOAR Partial"}, {"Method": "Architecture or Design Review", "Description": {"xhtml:p": "According to SOAR [REF-1479], the following detection techniques may be useful:", "xhtml:div": {"@style": "margin-left:1em;", "xhtml:div": ["Highly cost effective:", "Cost effective for partial coverage:"], "xhtml:ul": [{"xhtml:li": ["Inspection (IEEE 1028 standard) (can apply to requirements, design, source code, etc.)", "Formal Methods / Correct-By-Construction"]}, {"xhtml:li": "Attack Modeling"}]}}, "Effectiveness": "High"}]}, "Potential_Mitigations": {"Mitigation": [{"@Mitigation_ID": "MIT-1", "Phase": ["Architecture and Design", "Operation"], "Description": "Very carefully manage the setting, management, and handling of privileges. Explicitly manage trust zones in the software."}, {"@Mitigation_ID": "MIT-48", "Phase": "Architecture and Design", "Strategy": "Separation of Privilege", "Description": "Follow the principle of least privilege when assigning access rights to entities in a software system."}, {"@Mitigation_ID": "MIT-46", "Phase": "Architecture and Design", "Strategy": "Separation of Privilege", "Description": {"xhtml:p": ["Compartmentalize the system to have \"safe\" areas where trust boundaries can be unambiguously drawn. Do not allow sensitive data to go outside of the trust boundary and always be careful when interfacing with a compartment outside of the safe area.", "Ensure that appropriate compartmentalization is built into the system design, and the compartmentalization allows for and reinforces privilege separation functionality. Architects and designers should rely on the principle of least privilege to decide the appropriate time to use privileges and the time to drop privileges."]}}]}, "Demonstrative_Examples": {"Demonstrative_Example": [{"Intro_Text": "The following example demonstrates the weakness.", "Example_Code": {"@Nature": "Bad", "@Language": "C", "xhtml:div": {"xhtml:br": [null, null, null, null], "xhtml:i": ["// Do some important stuff", "// Do some non privileged stuff."], "#text": "setuid(0);\n                     \n                     setuid(old_uid);"}}}, {"@Demonstrative_Example_ID": "DX-142", "Intro_Text": "The following example demonstrates the weakness.", "Example_Code": {"@Nature": "Bad", "@Language": "Java", "xhtml:div": {"xhtml:div": {"@style": "margin-left:1em;", "xhtml:div": {"xhtml:div": {"@style": "margin-left:1em;", "xhtml:i": ["// privileged code goes here, for example:", "// nothing to return"], "xhtml:br": [null, null, null, null], "#text": "System.loadLibrary(\"awt\");return null;"}, "#text": "public Object run() {}"}}, "#text": "AccessController.doPrivileged(new PrivilegedAction() {"}}}, {"@Demonstrative_Example_ID": "DX-98", "Intro_Text": "The following code calls chroot() to restrict the application to a subset of the filesystem below APP_HOME in order to prevent an attacker from using the program to gain unauthorized access to files located elsewhere. The code then opens a file specified by the user and processes the contents of the file.", "Example_Code": {"@Nature": "Bad", "@Language": "C", "xhtml:div": {"xhtml:br": [null, null, null], "#text": "chroot(APP_HOME);chdir(\"/\");FILE* data = fopen(argv[1], \"r+\");..."}}, "Body_Text": "Constraining the process inside the application's home directory before opening any files is a valuable security measure. However, the absence of a call to setuid() with some non-zero value means the application is continuing to operate with unnecessary root privileges. Any successful exploit carried out by an attacker against the application can now result in a privilege escalation attack because any malicious operations will be performed with the privileges of the superuser. If the application drops to the privilege level of a non-root user, the potential for damage is substantially reduced."}]}, "Taxonomy_Mappings": {"Taxonomy_Mapping": [{"@Taxonomy_Name": "7 Pernicious Kingdoms", "Entry_Name": "Least Privilege Violation"}, {"@Taxonomy_Name": "CLASP", "Entry_Name": "Failure to drop privileges when reasonable"}, {"@Taxonomy_Name": "CERT C Secure Coding", "Entry_ID": "POS02-C", "Entry_Name": "Follow the principle of least privilege"}, {"@Taxonomy_Name": "The CERT Oracle Secure Coding Standard for Java (2011)", "Entry_ID": "SEC00-J", "Entry_Name": "Do not allow privileged blocks to leak sensitive information across a trust boundary"}, {"@Taxonomy_Name": "The CERT Oracle Secure Coding Standard for Java (2011)", "Entry_ID": "SEC01-J", "Entry_Name": "Do not allow tainted variables in privileged blocks"}, {"@Taxonomy_Name": "Software Fault Patterns", "Entry_ID": "SFP36", "Entry_Name": "Privilege"}]}, "Related_Attack_Patterns": {"Related_Attack_Pattern": [{"@CAPEC_ID": "17"}, {"@CAPEC_ID": "35"}, {"@CAPEC_ID": "76"}]}, "References": {"Reference": [{"@External_Reference_ID": "REF-6"}, {"@External_Reference_ID": "REF-1479"}]}, "Mapping_Notes": {"Usage": "Allowed", "Rationale": "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.", "Comments": "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.", "Reasons": {"Reason": {"@Type": "Acceptable-Use"}}}, "Notes": {"Note": [{"@Type": "Maintenance", "#text": "CWE-271, CWE-272, and CWE-250 are all closely related and possibly overlapping. CWE-271 is probably better suited as a category."}, {"@Type": "Other", "xhtml:p": ["If system privileges are not dropped when it is reasonable to do so, this is not a vulnerability by itself. According to the principle of least privilege, access should be allowed only when it is absolutely necessary to the function of a given system, and only for the minimal necessary amount of time. Any further allowance of privilege widens the window of time during which a successful exploitation of the system will provide an attacker with that same privilege. If at all possible, limit the allowance of system privilege to small, simple sections of code that may be called atomically.", "When a program calls a privileged function, such as chroot(), it must first acquire root privilege. As soon as the privileged operation has completed, the program should drop root privilege and return to the privilege level of the invoking user."]}]}, "Content_History": {"Submission": {"Submission_Name": "7 Pernicious Kingdoms", "Submission_Date": "2006-07-19", "Submission_Version": "Draft 3", "Submission_ReleaseDate": "2006-07-19"}, "Modification": [{"Modification_Name": "Eric Dalci", "Modification_Organization": "Cigital", "Modification_Date": "2008-07-01", "Modification_Version": "1.0", "Modification_ReleaseDate": "2008-09-09", "Modification_Comment": "updated Time_of_Introduction"}, {"Modification_Name": "CWE Content Team", "Modification_Organization": "MITRE", "Modification_Date": "2008-09-08", "Modification_Version": "1.0", "Modification_ReleaseDate": "2008-09-09", "Modification_Comment": "updated Common_Consequences, Relationships, Other_Notes, Taxonomy_Mappings, Weakness_Ordinalities"}, {"Modification_Name": "CWE Content Team", "Modification_Organization": "MITRE", "Modification_Date": "2008-10-14", "Modification_Version": "1.0.1", "Modification_ReleaseDate": "2008-10-14", "Modification_Comment": "updated Maintenance_Notes"}, {"Modification_Name": "CWE Content Team", "Modification_Organization": "MITRE", "Modification_Date": "2008-11-24", "Modification_Version": "1.1", "Modification_ReleaseDate": "2008-11-25", "Modification_Comment": "updated Relationships, Taxonomy_Mappings"}, {"Modification_Name": "CWE Content Team", "Modification_Organization": "MITRE", "Modification_Date": "2009-03-10", "Modification_Version": "1.3", "Modification_ReleaseDate": "2009-03-10", "Modification_Comment": "updated Demonstrative_Examples"}, {"Modification_Name": "CWE Content Team", "Modification_Organization": "MITRE", "Modification_Date": "2009-05-27", "Modification_Version": "1.4", "Modification_ReleaseDate": "2009-05-27", "Modification_Comment": "updated Demonstrative_Examples"}, {"Modification_Name": "CWE Content Team", "Modification_Organization": "MITRE", "Modification_Date": "2009-12-28", "Modification_Version": "1.7", "Modification_ReleaseDate": "2009-12-28", "Modification_Comment": "updated Potential_Mitigations"}, {"Modification_Name": "CWE Content Team", "Modification_Organization": "MITRE", "Modification_Date": "2010-06-21", "Modification_Version": "1.9", "Modification_ReleaseDate": "2010-06-21", "Modification_Comment": "updated Potential_Mitigations"}, {"Modification_Name": "CWE Content Team", "Modification_Organization": "MITRE", "Modification_Date": "2010-12-13", "Modification_Version": "1.11", "Modification_ReleaseDate": "2010-12-13", "Modification_Comment": "updated Other_Notes"}, {"Modification_Name": "CWE Content Team", "Modification_Organization": "MITRE", "Modification_Date": "2011-06-01", "Modification_Version": "1.13", "Modification_ReleaseDate": "2011-06-01", "Modification_Comment": "updated Common_Consequences, Relationships, Taxonomy_Mappings"}, {"Modification_Name": "CWE Content Team", "Modification_Organization": "MITRE", "Modification_Date": "2012-05-11", "Modification_Version": "2.2", "Modification_ReleaseDate": "2012-05-15", "Modification_Comment": "updated Demonstrative_Examples, Relationships, Taxonomy_Mappings"}, {"Modification_Name": "CWE Content Team", "Modification_Organization": "MITRE", "Modification_Date": "2012-10-30", "Modification_Version": "2.3", "Modification_ReleaseDate": "2012-10-30", "Modification_Comment": "updated Potential_Mitigations"}, {"Modification_Name": "CWE Content Team", "Modification_Organization": "MITRE", "Modification_Date": "2014-07-30", "Modification_Version": "2.8", "Modification_ReleaseDate": "2014-07-31", "Modification_Comment": "updated Detection_Factors, Taxonomy_Mappings"}, {"Modification_Name": "CWE Content Team", "Modification_Organization": "MITRE", "Modification_Date": "2017-11-08", "Modification_Version": "3.0", "Modification_ReleaseDate": "2017-11-08", "Modification_Comment": "updated Applicable_Platforms, Causal_Nature, Common_Consequences, Demonstrative_Examples, Modes_of_Introduction, Relationships"}, {"Modification_Name": "CWE Content Team", "Modification_Organization": "MITRE", "Modification_Date": "2019-01-03", "Modification_Version": "3.2", "Modification_ReleaseDate": "2019-01-03", "Modification_Comment": "updated Relationships, Taxonomy_Mappings"}, {"Modification_Name": "CWE Content Team", "Modification_Organization": "MITRE", "Modification_Date": "2020-02-24", "Modification_Version": "4.0", "Modification_ReleaseDate": "2020-02-24", "Modification_Comment": "updated Detection_Factors, References, Relationships"}, {"Modification_Name": "CWE Content Team", "Modification_Organization": "MITRE", "Modification_Date": "2020-12-10", "Modification_Version": "4.3", "Modification_ReleaseDate": "2020-12-10", "Modification_Comment": "updated Potential_Mitigations"}, {"Modification_Name": "CWE Content Team", "Modification_Organization": "MITRE", "Modification_Date": "2021-03-15", "Modification_Version": "4.4", "Modification_ReleaseDate": "2021-03-15", "Modification_Comment": "updated Demonstrative_Examples"}, {"Modification_Name": "CWE Content Team", "Modification_Organization": "MITRE", "Modification_Date": "2023-04-27", "Modification_Version": "4.11", "Modification_ReleaseDate": "2023-04-27", "Modification_Comment": "updated Relationships, Time_of_Introduction"}, {"Modification_Name": "CWE Content Team", "Modification_Organization": "MITRE", "Modification_Date": "2023-06-29", "Modification_Version": "4.12", "Modification_ReleaseDate": "2023-06-29", "Modification_Comment": "updated Mapping_Notes"}, {"Modification_Name": "CWE Content Team", "Modification_Organization": "MITRE", "Modification_Date": "2025-09-09", "Modification_Version": "4.18", "Modification_ReleaseDate": "2025-09-09", "Modification_Comment": "updated Detection_Factors, References"}]}}