CWE-782

Variant 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
Exposed IOCTL with Insufficient Access Control

Description

The product implements an IOCTL with functionality that should be restricted, but it does not properly enforce access control for the IOCTL.

When an IOCTL contains privileged functionality and is exposed unnecessarily, attackers may be able to access this functionality by invoking the IOCTL. Even if the functionality is benign, if the programmer has assumed that the IOCTL would only be accessed by a trusted process, there may be little or no validation of the incoming data, exposing weaknesses that would never be reachable if the attacker cannot call the IOCTL directly. The implementations of IOCTLs will differ between operating system types and versions, so the methods of attack and prevention may vary widely.

Consequences

Integrity, Availability, Confidentiality — Varies by Context

Attackers can invoke any functionality that the IOCTL offers. Depending on the functionality, the consequences may include code execution, denial-of-service, and theft of data.

Mitigations

Phase: Architecture and Design

In Windows environments, use proper access control for the associated device or device namespace. See References.