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The product does not perform an authorization check when an actor attempts to access a resource or perform an action.
Divide the product into anonymous, normal, privileged, and administrative areas. Reduce the attack surface by carefully mapping roles with data and functionality. Use role-based access control (RBAC) [REF-229] to enforce the roles at the appropriate boundaries.
Note that this approach may not protect against horizontal authorization, i.e., it will not protect a user from attacking others with the same role.
Ensure that access control checks are performed related to the business logic. These checks may be different than the access control checks that are applied to more generic resources such as files, connections, processes, memory, and database records. For example, a database may restrict access for medical records to a specific database user, but each record might only be intended to be accessible to the patient and the patient's doctor [REF-7].
Use a vetted library or framework that does not allow this weakness to occur or provides constructs that make this weakness easier to avoid.
For example, consider using authorization frameworks such as the JAAS Authorization Framework [REF-233] and the OWASP ESAPI Access Control feature [REF-45].
For web applications, make sure that the access control mechanism is enforced correctly at the server side on every page. Users should not be able to access any unauthorized functionality or information by simply requesting direct access to that page.
One way to do this is to ensure that all pages containing sensitive information are not cached, and that all such pages restrict access to requests that are accompanied by an active and authenticated session token associated with a user who has th...
Use the access control capabilities of your operating system and server environment and define your access control lists accordingly. Use a "default deny" policy when defining these ACLs.
An attacker could read sensitive data, either by reading the data directly from a data store that is not restricted, or by accessing insufficiently-protected, privileged functionality to read the data.
An attacker could modify sensitive data, either by writing the data directly to a data store that is not restricted, or by accessing insufficiently-protected, privileged functionality to write the data.
An attacker could gain privileges by modifying or reading critical data directly, or by accessing privileged functionality.
An attacker could gain unauthorized access to resources on the system and excessively consume those resources, leading to a denial of service.
Automated static analysis is useful for detecting commonly-used idioms for authorization. A tool may be able to analyze related configuration files, such as .htaccess in Apache web servers, or detect the usage of commonly-used authorization libraries.
Generally, automated static analysis tools have difficulty detecting custom authorization schemes. In addition, the software's design may include some functionality that is accessible to any user and does not require an authorization check; an aut...
Automated dynamic analysis may find many or all possible interfaces that do not require authorization, but manual analysis is required to determine if the lack of authorization violates business logic.
This weakness can be detected using tools and techniques that require manual (human) analysis, such as penetration testing, threat modeling, and interactive tools that allow the tester to record and modify an active session.
Specifically, manual static analysis is useful for evaluating the correctness of custom authorization mechanisms.
According to SOAR [REF-1479], the following detection techniques may be useful:
According to SOAR [REF-1479], the following detection techniques may be useful:
According to SOAR [REF-1479], the following detection techniques may be useful:
According to SOAR [REF-1479], the following detection techniques may be useful:
According to SOAR [REF-1479], the following detection techniques may be useful:
According to SOAR [REF-1479], the following detection techniques may be useful:
CVE-2024-6845chatbot Wordpress plugin does not perform authorization on a REST endpoint, allowing retrieval of an API key
CVE-2025-2224AI-enabled WordPress plugin has a missing capability check for a particular function, allowing changing public status of posts
CVE-2022-24730Go-based continuous deployment product does not check that a user has certain privileges to update or create an app, allowing adversaries to read sensitive repository information
CVE-2009-3168Web application does not restrict access to admin scripts, allowing authenticated users to reset administrative passwords.
CVE-2009-3597Web application stores database file under the web root with insufficient access control (CWE-219), allowing direct request.