CAPEC-180: Exploiting Incorrectly Configured Access Control Security Levels

Description
An attacker exploits a weakness in the configuration of access controls and is able to bypass the intended protection that these measures guard against and thereby obtain unauthorized access to the system or network. Sensitive functionality should always be protected with access controls. However configuring all but the most trivial access control systems can be very complicated and there are many opportunities for mistakes. If an attacker can learn of incorrectly configured access security settings, they may be able to exploit this in an attack.
Extended Description

Most commonly, attackers would take advantage of controls that provided too little protection for sensitive activities in order to perform actions that should be denied to them. In some circumstances, an attacker may be able to take advantage of overly restrictive access control policies, initiating denial of services (if an application locks because it unexpectedly failed to be granted access) or causing other legitimate actions to fail due to security. The latter class of attacks, however, is usually less severe and easier to detect than attacks based on inadequate security restrictions. This attack pattern differs from CAPEC 1, "Accessing Functionality Not Properly Constrained by ACLs" in that the latter describes attacks where sensitive functionality lacks access controls, where, in this pattern, the access control is present, but incorrectly configured.

Severity :

Medium

Possibility :

High

Type :

Standard
Relationships with other CAPECs

This table shows the other attack patterns and high level categories that are related to this attack pattern.

CAPEC-17: Using Malicious Files Using Malicious Files CAPEC-58: Restful Privilege Elevation Restful Privilege Elevation CAPEC-122: Privilege Abuse Privilege Abuse CAPEC-663: Exploitation of Transient Instruction Execution Exploitation of Transient Instruction Execution CAPEC-679: Exploitation of Improperly Configured or Implemented Memory Protections Exploitation of Improperly Configured or Implemented Memory Protections CAPEC-680: Exploitation of Improperly Controlled Registers Exploitation of Improperly Controlled Registers CAPEC-681: Exploitation of Improperly Controlled Hardware Security Identifiers Exploitation of Improperly Controlled Hardware Security Identifiers CAPEC-702: Exploiting Incorrect Chaining or Granularity of Hardware Debug Components Exploiting Incorrect Chaining or Granularity of Hardware Debug Components
Prerequisites

This table shows the other attack patterns and high level categories that are related to this attack pattern.

  • The target must apply access controls, but incorrectly configure them. However, not all incorrect configurations can be exploited by an attacker. If the incorrect configuration applies too little security to some functionality, then the attacker may be able to exploit it if the access control would be the only thing preventing an attacker's access and it no longer does so. If the incorrect configuration applies too much security, it must prevent legitimate activity and the attacker must be able to force others to require this activity..
Skills required

This table shows the other attack patterns and high level categories that are related to this attack pattern.

  • Low In order to discover unrestricted resources, the attacker does not need special tools or skills. They only have to observe the resources or access mechanisms invoked as each action is performed and then try and access those access mechanisms directly.
Taxonomy mappings

Mappings to ATT&CK, OWASP and other frameworks.

ATTACK | Hijack Execution Flow: Services File Permissions Weaknesses
Resources required

None: No specialized resources are required to execute this type of attack.

Related CWE

A Related Weakness relationship associates a weakness with this attack pattern. Each association implies a weakness that must exist for a given attack to be successful.

CWE-732: Incorrect Permission Assignment for Critical Resource

CWE-1190: DMA Device Enabled Too Early in Boot Phase

CWE-1191: On-Chip Debug and Test Interface With Improper Access Control

CWE-1193: Power-On of Untrusted Execution Core Before Enabling Fabric Access Control

CWE-1220: Insufficient Granularity of Access Control

CWE-1268: Policy Privileges are not Assigned Consistently Between Control and Data Agents

CWE-1280: Access Control Check Implemented After Asset is Accessed

CWE-1297: Unprotected Confidential Information on Device is Accessible by OSAT Vendors

CWE-1311: Improper Translation of Security Attributes by Fabric Bridge

CWE-1315: Improper Setting of Bus Controlling Capability in Fabric End-point

CWE-1318: Missing Support for Security Features in On-chip Fabrics or Buses

CWE-1320: Improper Protection for Outbound Error Messages and Alert Signals

CWE-1321: Improperly Controlled Modification of Object Prototype Attributes ('Prototype Pollution')

Visit http://capec.mitre.org/ for more details.