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Weakness (CWE)

CWE-280: Improper Handling of Insufficient Permissions or Privileges

Base Draft

The product does not handle or incorrectly handles when it has insufficient privileges to access resources or functionality as specified by their permissions. This may cause it to follow unexpected code paths that may leave the product in an invalid state.

How to prevent it (2 mitigations)

  1. Architecture and Design

    Compartmentalize the system to have "safe" areas where trust boundaries can be unambiguously drawn. Do not allow sensitive data to go outside of the trust boundary and always be careful when interfacing with a compartment outside of the safe area.

    Ensure that appropriate compartmentalization is built into the system design, and the compartmentalization allows for and reinforces privilege separation functionality. Architects and designers should rely on the principle of least privilege to decide the appropriate time to use privileges and the time to drop privileges.

  2. Implementation

    Always check to see if you have successfully accessed a resource or system functionality, and use proper error handling if it is unsuccessful. Do this even when you are operating in a highly privileged mode, because errors or environmental conditions might still cause a failure. For example, environments with highly granular permissions/privilege models, such as Windows or Linux capabilities, can cause unexpected failures.

Source: MITRE CWE-280

All Critical High Medium Low Exploited only Public exploit

7 results · Clear filters · Feed

  • Low 2.9
    CVE-2026-96872 Public exploit

    WikiLambda public function execution bypasses the unsaved-code permission through nested Z825 compositions

    Improper handling of insufficient permissions or privileges vulnerability in The Wikimedia Foundation Mediawiki - WikiLambda Extension on Linux, MacOS, and Windows allows Accessing Functionality Not Properly Constrained by ACLs. This issue affects Mediawiki -…

    The Wikimedia Foundation MediaWiki WikiLambda extension Web / CMS
  • High 7.8
    CVE-2026-43786 Public exploit

    This issue was addressed with additional entitlement checks. This issue is fixed in macOS Golden Gate 27, macOS Sequoia…

    Apple macOS macOS
  • High 8.4
    CVE-2026-0047 Public exploit

    In dumpBitmapsProto of ActivityManagerService.java, there is a possible way for an app to access private information du…

    Google Android Android
  • High 7.8
    CVE-2026-20817 Public exploit

    Windows Error Reporting Service Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability

    Improper handling of insufficient permissions or privileges in Windows Error Reporting allows an authorized attacker to elevate privileges locally.

    Microsoft Windows Server 2022 Windows 10 Version 21H2 Windows 10 Version 22H2 Windows
  • High 8.3
    CVE-2023-42931 Public exploit

    The issue was addressed with improved checks. This issue is fixed in macOS Ventura 13.6.3, macOS Sonoma 14.2, macOS Mon…

    Apple macOS macOS
  • High 7.8
    CVE-2024-0015 Public exploit

    In convertToComponentName of DreamService.java, there is a possible way to launch arbitrary protected activities due to…

    Google Android Android
  • High 8.1
    CVE-2020-17533 Public exploit

    Apache Accumulo Improper Handling of Insufficient Permissions

    Apache Accumulo versions 1.5.0 through 1.10.0 and version 2.0.0 do not properly check the return value of some policy enforcement functions before permitting an authenticated user to perform certain administrative operations. Specifically, the return values o…

    Apache Software Foundation Apache Accumulo org.apache.accumulo:accumulo-master Maven