CWE-269

Class Abstraction Level
Pillar — Highest-level weakness category
Class — Abstract, language-independent
Base — Specific enough to detect
Variant — Tied to specific technology
Compound — Requires multiple weaknesses Draft MITRE CWE Status
Stable — Fully reviewed and complete
Draft — Under development, may change
Incomplete — Partially defined by MITRE
Deprecated — No longer recommended
Obsolete — Replaced by another CWE Exploit: Medium
Improper Privilege Management

Description

The product does not properly assign, modify, track, or check privileges for an actor, creating an unintended sphere of control for that actor.

Top Monitored CVEs

CVE-2021-20021
CRITICAL KEV
9.8 83.4%
2021-04-09
CVE-2021-34621
CRITICAL
9.8 68.9%
2021-07-07
CVE-2023-26475
HIGH
8.8 64.5%
2023-03-02
CVE-2021-34481
HIGH
8.8 45.4%
2021-07-16
CVE-2021-43858
HIGH
8.8 35.5%
2021-12-27
CVE-2024-24747
HIGH
8.8 34.1%
2024-01-31
CVE-2023-41326
HIGH
8.8 30.9%
2023-09-26
CVE-2022-20759
HIGH
8.8 28.4%
2022-05-03
CVE-2026-1492
CRITICAL
9.8 25.5%
2026-03-03
CVE-2025-6934
CRITICAL
9.8 22.3%
2025-07-01

Consequences

Access Control — Gain Privileges or Assume Identity

Mitigations

Phase: Architecture and Design, Operation

Very carefully manage the setting, management, and handling of privileges. Explicitly manage trust zones in the software.

Phase: Architecture and Design

Follow the principle of least privilege when assigning access rights to entities in a software system.

Phase: Architecture and Design

Consider following the principle of separation of privilege. Require multiple conditions to be met before permitting access to a system resource.

Detection

Automated Static Analysis

Automated static analysis, commonly referred to as Static Application Security Testing (SAST), can find some instances of this weakness by analyzing source code (or binary/compiled code) without having to execute it. Typically, this is done by building a model of data flow and control flow, then searching for potentially-vulnerable patterns that connect "sources" (origins of input) with "sinks" (destinations where the data interacts with external components, a lower layer such as the OS, etc.)