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Home > CWE List > CWE-266: Incorrect Privilege Assignment (4.18)
ID
CWE Glossary Definition

CWE-266: Incorrect Privilege Assignment

Weakness ID: 266
Vulnerability Mapping: ALLOWED This CWE ID may be used to map to real-world vulnerabilities
Abstraction: Base Base - a weakness that is still mostly independent of a resource or technology, but with sufficient details to provide specific methods for detection and prevention. Base level weaknesses typically describe issues in terms of 2 or 3 of the following dimensions: behavior, property, technology, language, and resource.
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Description
A product incorrectly assigns a privilege to a particular actor, creating an unintended sphere of control for that actor.
Common Consequences
Section HelpThis table specifies different individual consequences associated with the weakness. The Scope identifies the application security area that is violated, while the Impact describes the negative technical impact that arises if an adversary succeeds in exploiting this weakness. The Likelihood provides information about how likely the specific consequence is expected to be seen relative to the other consequences in the list. For example, there may be high likelihood that a weakness will be exploited to achieve a certain impact, but a low likelihood that it will be exploited to achieve a different impact.
Impact Details

Gain Privileges or Assume Identity

Scope: Access Control

A user can access restricted functionality and/or sensitive information that may include administrative functionality and user accounts.
Potential Mitigations
Phase(s) Mitigation

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

Strategy: 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.
Relationships
Section Help This table shows the weaknesses and high level categories that are related to this weakness. These relationships are defined as ChildOf, ParentOf, MemberOf and give insight to similar items that may exist at higher and lower levels of abstraction. In addition, relationships such as PeerOf and CanAlsoBe are defined to show similar weaknesses that the user may want to explore.
Relevant to the view "Research Concepts" (View-1000)
Nature Type ID Name
ChildOf Class Class - a weakness that is described in a very abstract fashion, typically independent of any specific language or technology. More specific than a Pillar Weakness, but more general than a Base Weakness. Class level weaknesses typically describe issues in terms of 1 or 2 of the following dimensions: behavior, property, and resource. 269 Improper Privilege Management
ParentOf Variant Variant - a weakness that is linked to a certain type of product, typically involving a specific language or technology. More specific than a Base weakness. Variant level weaknesses typically describe issues in terms of 3 to 5 of the following dimensions: behavior, property, technology, language, and resource. 9 J2EE Misconfiguration: Weak Access Permissions for EJB Methods
ParentOf Variant Variant - a weakness that is linked to a certain type of product, typically involving a specific language or technology. More specific than a Base weakness. Variant level weaknesses typically describe issues in terms of 3 to 5 of the following dimensions: behavior, property, technology, language, and resource. 520 .NET Misconfiguration: Use of Impersonation
ParentOf Variant Variant - a weakness that is linked to a certain type of product, typically involving a specific language or technology. More specific than a Base weakness. Variant level weaknesses typically describe issues in terms of 3 to 5 of the following dimensions: behavior, property, technology, language, and resource. 556 ASP.NET Misconfiguration: Use of Identity Impersonation
ParentOf Variant Variant - a weakness that is linked to a certain type of product, typically involving a specific language or technology. More specific than a Base weakness. Variant level weaknesses typically describe issues in terms of 3 to 5 of the following dimensions: behavior, property, technology, language, and resource. 1022 Use of Web Link to Untrusted Target with window.opener Access
CanAlsoBe Class Class - a weakness that is described in a very abstract fashion, typically independent of any specific language or technology. More specific than a Pillar Weakness, but more general than a Base Weakness. Class level weaknesses typically describe issues in terms of 1 or 2 of the following dimensions: behavior, property, and resource. 286 Incorrect User Management
Relevant to the view "Software Development" (View-699)
Nature Type ID Name
MemberOf Category Category - a CWE entry that contains a set of other entries that share a common characteristic. 265 Privilege Issues
Relevant to the view "Architectural Concepts" (View-1008)
Nature Type ID Name
MemberOf Category Category - a CWE entry that contains a set of other entries that share a common characteristic. 1011 Authorize Actors
Modes Of Introduction
Section HelpThe different Modes of Introduction provide information about how and when this weakness may be introduced. The Phase identifies a point in the life cycle at which introduction may occur, while the Note provides a typical scenario related to introduction during the given phase.
Phase Note
Implementation REALIZATION: This weakness is caused during implementation of an architectural security tactic.
Applicable Platforms
Section HelpThis listing shows possible areas for which the given weakness could appear. These may be for specific named Languages, Operating Systems, Architectures, Paradigms, Technologies, or a class of such platforms. The platform is listed along with how frequently the given weakness appears for that instance.
Languages

Class: Not Language-Specific (Undetermined Prevalence)

Demonstrative Examples

Example 1


The following example demonstrates the weakness.

(bad code)
Example Language: C
seteuid(0);
/* do some stuff */

seteuid(getuid());


Example 2


The following example demonstrates the weakness.

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


Example 3


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

(bad code)
Example Language: Java
Intent intent = new Intent();
intent.setAction("com.example.BackupUserData");
intent.setData(file_uri);
intent.addFlags(FLAG_GRANT_READ_URI_PERMISSION);
sendBroadcast(intent);
(attack code)
Example Language: Java
public class CallReceiver extends BroadcastReceiver {
@Override
public 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.



Selected Observed Examples

Note: this is a curated list of examples for users to understand the variety of ways in which this weakness can be introduced. It is not a complete list of all CVEs that are related to this CWE entry.

Reference Description
untrusted user placed in unix "wheel" group
Product allows users to grant themselves certain rights that can be used to escalate privileges.
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.
Product mistakenly assigns a particular status to an entity, leading to increased privileges.
Weakness Ordinalities
Ordinality Description
Resultant
(where the weakness is typically related to the presence of some other weaknesses)
Affected Resources
  • System Process
Memberships
Section HelpThis MemberOf Relationships table shows additional CWE Categories and Views that reference this weakness as a member. This information is often useful in understanding where a weakness fits within the context of external information sources.
Nature Type ID Name
MemberOf CategoryCategory - a CWE entry that contains a set of other entries that share a common characteristic. 723 OWASP Top Ten 2004 Category A2 - Broken Access Control
MemberOf CategoryCategory - a CWE entry that contains a set of other entries that share a common characteristic. 859 The CERT Oracle Secure Coding Standard for Java (2011) Chapter 16 - Platform Security (SEC)
MemberOf ViewView - a subset of CWE entries that provides a way of examining CWE content. The two main view structures are Slices (flat lists) and Graphs (containing relationships between entries). 884 CWE Cross-section
MemberOf CategoryCategory - a CWE entry that contains a set of other entries that share a common characteristic. 901 SFP Primary Cluster: Privilege
MemberOf CategoryCategory - a CWE entry that contains a set of other entries that share a common characteristic. 1149 SEI CERT Oracle Secure Coding Standard for Java - Guidelines 15. Platform Security (SEC)
MemberOf CategoryCategory - a CWE entry that contains a set of other entries that share a common characteristic. 1348 OWASP Top Ten 2021 Category A04:2021 - Insecure Design
MemberOf CategoryCategory - a CWE entry that contains a set of other entries that share a common characteristic. 1396 Comprehensive Categorization: Access Control
Vulnerability Mapping Notes
Usage ALLOWED
(this CWE ID may be used to map to real-world vulnerabilities)
Reason Acceptable-Use

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.
Taxonomy Mappings
Mapped Taxonomy Name Node ID Fit Mapped Node Name
PLOVER Incorrect Privilege Assignment
The CERT Oracle Secure Coding Standard for Java (2011) SEC00-J Do not allow privileged blocks to leak sensitive information across a trust boundary
The CERT Oracle Secure Coding Standard for Java (2011) SEC01-J Do not allow tainted variables in privileged blocks
References
[REF-76] Sean Barnum and Michael Gegick. "Least Privilege". 2005年09月14日.
<https://web.archive.org/web/20211209014121/https://www.cisa.gov/uscert/bsi/articles/knowledge/principles/least-privilege>. (URL validated: 2023年04月07日)
Content History
Submissions
Submission Date Submitter Organization
2006年07月19日
(CWE Draft 3, 2006年07月19日) 		PLOVER
Modifications
Modification Date Modifier Organization
2023年06月29日 CWE Content Team MITRE
updated Mapping_Notes
2023年04月27日 CWE Content Team MITRE
updated References, Relationships, Time_of_Introduction
2022年10月13日 CWE Content Team MITRE
updated References
2021年10月28日 CWE Content Team MITRE
updated Relationships
2021年03月15日 CWE Content Team MITRE
updated Demonstrative_Examples
2020年02月24日 CWE Content Team MITRE
updated Relationships
2019年01月03日 CWE Content Team MITRE
updated Relationships, Taxonomy_Mappings
2017年11月08日 CWE Content Team MITRE
updated Causal_Nature, Modes_of_Introduction, References, Relationships
2014年02月18日 CWE Content Team MITRE
updated Applicable_Platforms, Demonstrative_Examples
2012年10月30日 CWE Content Team MITRE
updated Potential_Mitigations, References
2012年05月11日 CWE Content Team MITRE
updated Common_Consequences, Demonstrative_Examples, Relationships, Taxonomy_Mappings
2011年06月01日 CWE Content Team MITRE
updated Common_Consequences, Relationships, Taxonomy_Mappings
2010年06月21日 CWE Content Team MITRE
updated Potential_Mitigations
2009年12月28日 CWE Content Team MITRE
updated Potential_Mitigations
2009年03月10日 CWE Content Team MITRE
updated Relationships
2008年09月08日 CWE Content Team MITRE
updated Description, Relationships, Taxonomy_Mappings, Weakness_Ordinalities
2008年07月01日 Eric Dalci Cigital
updated Time_of_Introduction
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Page Last Updated: September 09, 2025

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