CWE-668: Exposure of Resource to Wrong Sphere
Description
The product exposes a resource to the wrong control sphere, providing unintended actors with inappropriate access to the resource.
Resources such as files and directories may be inadvertently exposed through mechanisms such as insecure permissions, or when a program accidentally operates on the wrong object. For example, a program may intend that private files can only be provided to a specific user. This effectively defines a control sphere that is intended to prevent attackers from accessing these private files. If the file permissions are insecure, then parties other than the user will be able to access those files. A separate control sphere might effectively require that the user can only access the private files, but not any other files on the system. If the program does not ensure that the user is only requesting private files, then the user might be able to access other files on the system. In either case, the end result is that a resource has been exposed to the wrong party.
- Abstraction
- ClassAn abstract weakness, independent of any specific language or technology.
- Likelihood of exploit
- Not rated by MITRE
- Status
- Draft
Common consequences
- Confidentiality
Read Application Data
An adversary that gains access to a resource exposed to a wrong sphere could potentially retrieve private data from that resource, thus breaking the intended confidentiality of that data.
- Integrity
Modify Application Data
An adversary that gains access to a resource exposed to a wrong sphere could potentially modify data held within that resource, thus breaking the intended integrity of that data and causing the system relying on that resource to make unintended decisions.
- Other
Varies by Context
The consequences may vary widely depending on how the product uses the affected resource.
Related weaknesses
Parent weaknesses
Child weaknesses
- CWE-8J2EE Misconfiguration: Entity Bean Declared Remote
- CWE-134Use of Externally-Controlled Format String
- CWE-200Exposure of Sensitive Information to an Unauthorized Actor
- CWE-374Passing Mutable Objects to an Untrusted Method
- CWE-375Returning a Mutable Object to an Untrusted Caller
- CWE-377Insecure Temporary File
- CWE-402Transmission of Private Resources into a New Sphere ('Resource Leak')
- CWE-427Uncontrolled Search Path Element
- CWE-428Unquoted Search Path or Element
- CWE-488Exposure of Data Element to Wrong Session
- CWE-491Public cloneable() Method Without Final ('Object Hijack')
- CWE-492Use of Inner Class Containing Sensitive Data
- CWE-493Critical Public Variable Without Final Modifier
- CWE-498Cloneable Class Containing Sensitive Information
- CWE-499Serializable Class Containing Sensitive Data
- CWE-522Insufficiently Protected Credentials
- CWE-524Use of Cache Containing Sensitive Information
- CWE-552Files or Directories Accessible to External Parties
- CWE-582Array Declared Public, Final, and Static
- CWE-583finalize() Method Declared Public
- CWE-608Struts: Non-private Field in ActionForm Class
- CWE-642External Control of Critical State Data
- CWE-732Incorrect Permission Assignment for Critical Resource
- CWE-767Access to Critical Private Variable via Public Method
- CWE-927Use of Implicit Intent for Sensitive Communication
- CWE-1189Improper Isolation of Shared Resources on System-on-a-Chip (SoC)
- CWE-1282Assumed-Immutable Data is Stored in Writable Memory
- CWE-1327Binding to an Unrestricted IP Address
- CWE-1331Improper Isolation of Shared Resources in Network On Chip (NoC)
CAPEC attack patterns that exploit it
CWE 4.20 links no CAPEC attack pattern to this weakness.