Missing Authorization

Opis

The product does not perform an authorization check when an actor attempts to access a resource or perform an action.

Inne nazwy

AuthZ

"AuthZ" is typically used as an abbreviation of "authorization" within the web application security community. It is distinct from "AuthN" (or, sometimes, "AuthC") which is an abbreviation of "authentication." The use of "Auth" as an abbreviation is discouraged, since it could be used for either authentication or authorization.

Skutki

• Confidentiality

  Read Application Data; Read Files or Directories

  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.

• Integrity

  Modify Application Data; Modify Files or Directories

  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.

• Access Control

  Gain Privileges or Assume Identity; Bypass Protection Mechanism

  An attacker could gain privileges by modifying or reading critical data directly, or by accessing privileged functionality.

• Availability

  DoS: Crash, Exit, or Restart; DoS: Resource Consumption (CPU); DoS: Resource Consumption (Memory); DoS: Resource Consumption (Other)

  An attacker could gain unauthorized access to resources on the system and excessively consume those resources, leading to a denial of service.

Zapobieganie

• Architecture and Design

  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.

• Architecture and Design

  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].

• Architecture and Design · Libraries or Frameworks

  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].

• Architecture and Design

  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 the required permissions to access that page.

• System Configuration, Installation

  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.

Przykłady podatności

• CVE-2026-32228 workflow management product does not check authorization for running a workflow, allowing UI and API users to trigger workflow objects for which they have no access
• CVE-2024-6845 chatbot Wordpress plugin does not perform authorization on a REST endpoint, allowing retrieval of an API key
• CVE-2025-2224 AI-enabled WordPress plugin has a missing capability check for a particular function, allowing changing public status of posts
• CVE-2022-24730 Go-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-2009-3168 Web application does not restrict access to admin scripts, allowing authenticated users to reset administrative passwords.
• CVE-2009-3597 Web application stores database file under the web root with insufficient access control (CWE-219), allowing direct request.
• CVE-2009-2282 Terminal server does not check authorization for guest access.
• CVE-2008-5027 System monitoring software allows users to bypass authorization by creating custom forms.
• CVE-2009-3781 Content management system does not check access permissions for private files, allowing others to view those files.
• CVE-2008-6548 Product does not check the ACL of a page accessed using an "include" directive, allowing attackers to read unauthorized files.
• CVE-2009-2960 Web application does not restrict access to admin scripts, allowing authenticated users to modify passwords of other users.
• CVE-2009-3230 Database server does not use appropriate privileges for certain sensitive operations.
• CVE-2009-2213 Gateway uses default "Allow" configuration for its authorization settings.
• CVE-2009-0034 Chain: product does not properly interpret a configuration option for a system group, allowing users to gain privileges.
• CVE-2008-6123 Chain: SNMP product does not properly parse a configuration option for which hosts are allowed to connect, allowing unauthorized IP addresses to connect.
• CVE-2008-7109 Chain: reliance on client-side security (CWE-602) allows attackers to bypass authorization using a custom client.
• CVE-2008-3424 Chain: product does not properly handle wildcards in an authorization policy list, allowing unintended access.
• CVE-2005-1036 Chain: Bypass of access restrictions due to improper authorization (CWE-862) of a user results from an improperly initialized (CWE-909) I/O permission bitmap
• CVE-2008-4577 ACL-based protection mechanism treats negative access rights as if they are positive, allowing bypass of intended restrictions.
• CVE-2007-2925 Default ACL list for a DNS server does not set certain ACLs, allowing unauthorized DNS queries.
• CVE-2006-6679 Product relies on the X-Forwarded-For HTTP header for authorization, allowing unintended access by spoofing the header.
• CVE-2005-3623 OS kernel does not check for a certain privilege before setting ACLs for files.
• CVE-2005-2801 Chain: file-system code performs an incorrect comparison (CWE-697), preventing default ACLs from being properly applied.
• CVE-2001-1155 Chain: product does not properly check the result of a reverse DNS lookup because of operator precedence (CWE-783), allowing bypass of DNS-based access restrictions.
• CVE-2020-17533 Chain: unchecked return value (CWE-252) of some functions for policy enforcement leads to authorization bypass (CWE-862)

Słabość nadrzędna

• CWE-285 Improper Authorization
• CWE-284 Improper Access Control

Słabości podrzędne

• CWE-425 Direct Request ('Forced Browsing')
• CWE-638 Not Using Complete Mediation
• CWE-939 Improper Authorization in Handler for Custom URL Scheme
• CWE-1314 Missing Write Protection for Parametric Data Values

Kiedy powstaje

• Architecture and Design — OMISSION: This weakness is caused by missing a security tactic during the architecture and design phase. Authorization weaknesses may arise when a single-user application is ported to a multi-user environment.
• Implementation — A developer may introduce authorization weaknesses because of a lack of understanding about the underlying technologies. For example, a developer may assume that attackers cannot modify certain inputs such as headers or cookies.
• Operation

Dotyczy

Not Language-Specific, AI/ML, Web Server, Database Server, Not Technology-Specific

Uwagi

Assuming a user with a given identity, authorization is the process of determining whether that user can access a given resource, based on the user's privileges and any permissions or other access-control specifications that apply to the resource.

Źródła

1. Role Based Access Control and Role Based Security — NIST
2. Writing Secure Code — Michael Howard, David LeBlanc, Chapter 4, "Authorization" Page 114; Chapter 6, "Determining Appropriate Access Control" Page 171, Microsoft Press, 2002
3. Top 25 Series - Rank 5 - Improper Access Control (Authorization) — Frank Kim, SANS Software Security Institute, 2010
4. OWASP Enterprise Security API (ESAPI) Project — OWASP
5. Authentication using JAAS — Rahul Bhattacharjee
6. The Art of Software Security Assessment — Mark Dowd, John McDonald, Justin Schuh, Chapter 2, "Common Vulnerabilities of Authorization", Page 39, Addison Wesley, 2006
7. State-of-the-Art Resources (SOAR) for Software Vulnerability Detection, Test, and Evaluation — Gregory Larsen, E. Kenneth Hong Fong, David A. Wheeler, Rama S. Moorthy, 2014