CWE-250 - Execution with Unnecessary Privileges

CWE ID:

CWE-250

Medium

Abstraction:Base
Structure:Simple
Status:Draft

Release Date:2006-07-19
Latest Modification Date:2023-10-26

Weakness Name

Execution with Unnecessary Privileges

Description

The product performs an operation at a privilege level that is higher than the minimum level required, which creates new weaknesses or amplifies the consequences of other weaknesses.

New weaknesses can be exposed because running with extra privileges, such as root or Administrator, can disable the normal security checks being performed by the operating system or surrounding environment. Other pre-existing weaknesses can turn into security vulnerabilities if they occur while operating at raised privileges. Privilege management functions can behave in some less-than-obvious ways, and they have different quirks on different platforms. These inconsistencies are particularly pronounced if you are transitioning from one non-root user to another. Signal handlers and spawned processes run at the privilege of the owning process, so if a process is running as root when a signal fires or a sub-process is executed, the signal handler or sub-process will operate with root privileges.

Common Consequences

Scope: Confidentiality, Integrity, Availability, Access Control

Impact: Gain Privileges or Assume Identity, Execute Unauthorized Code or Commands, Read Application Data, DoS: Crash, Exit, or Restart

Notes: An attacker will be able to gain access to any resources that are allowed by the extra privileges. Common results include executing code, disabling services, and reading restricted data.