CWE-267: Privilege Defined With Unsafe Actions
A particular privilege, role, capability, or right can be used to perform unsafe actions that were not intended, even when it is assigned to the correct entity.
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Overview
CWE-267 (Privilege Defined With Unsafe Actions) is a base-level software weakness catalogued by MITRE in the Common Weakness Enumeration (CWE). It describes a recurring type of mistake that can lead to exploitable security vulnerabilities.
Real-world CVEs
59 recorded CVEs are caused by CWE-267 (Privilege Defined With Unsafe Actions), including 1 in CISA's KEV (Known Exploited Vulnerabilities) catalog. KEVs are shown first. 9 new CWE-267 CVEs have been recorded so far in 2026 (20 in 2025).
- CVE-2025-41244CISA KEV
VMSA-2025-0015: VMware Aria Operations and VMware Tools updates address multiple vulnerabilities (CVE-2025-41244,CVE-2025-41245, CVE-2025-41246)
High · CVSS 8.5 · EPSS 94th2025-09-29 - CVE-2023-22647Critical · CVSS 9.9 · EPSS 50th2023-06-01
- CVE-2026-29646Critical · CVSS 9.8 · EPSS 29th2026-04-20
- CVE-2021-44547Critical · CVSS 9.1 · EPSS 49th2023-04-25
- CVE-2026-27314
Apache Cassandra: Privilege escalation via ADD IDENTITY authorization bypass
High · CVSS 8.8 · EPSS 18th2026-04-07 - CVE-2026-0945
Role Delegation - Moderately critical - Access bypass - SA-CONTRIB-2026-002
High · CVSS 8.8 · EPSS 13th2026-02-04 - CVE-2025-53900
Kiteworks MFT has a Privilege Defined With Unsafe Actions
High · CVSS 8.8 · EPSS 59th2025-11-29 - CVE-2025-7691
Privilege Defined With Unsafe Actions in GitLab
High · CVSS 8.8 · EPSS 27th2025-09-26 - CVE-2025-26467
Apache Cassandra: User with MODIFY permission on ALL KEYSPACES can escalate privileges to superuser via unsafe actions (4.0.16 only)
High · CVSS 8.8 · EPSS 38th2025-08-25 - CVE-2025-23015
Apache Cassandra: User with MODIFY permission on ALL KEYSPACES can escalate privileges to superuser via unsafe actions
High · CVSS 8.8 · EPSS 58th2025-02-04 - CVE-2024-55968High · CVSS 8.8 · EPSS 58th2025-01-28
- CVE-2024-42365
Asterisk allows `Write=originate` as sufficient permissions for code execution / `System()` dialplan
High · CVSS 8.8 · EPSS 91th2024-08-08
Showing 12 of 59 recorded CWE-267 CVEs. Track new ones as they are published and get AI-written analysis and fixes.
Monitor CWE-267 vulnerabilitiesCommon consequences
What can happen when CWE-267 is exploited.
Gain Privileges or Assume Identity
Affects: Access Control
A user can access restricted functionality and/or sensitive information that may include administrative functionality and user accounts.
How it happens
When it is introduced
Typically introduced during these phases of the software lifecycle.
How to prevent it
Practical mitigations for CWE-267, grouped by where in the lifecycle they apply.
Very carefully manage the setting, management, and handling of privileges. Explicitly manage trust zones in the software.
Run your code using the lowest privileges that are required to accomplish the necessary tasks [REF-76]. If possible, create isolated accounts with limited privileges that are only used for a single task. That way, a successful attack will not immediately give the attacker access to the rest of the software or its environment. For example, database applications rarely need to run as the database administrator, especially in day-to-day operations.
Code examples
Illustrative examples from MITRE showing how the weakness appears in code.
This code intends to allow only Administrators to print debug information about a system.
Vulnerable example
public enum Roles {While the intention was to only allow Administrators to print the debug information, the code as written only excludes those with the role of "GUEST". Someone with the role of "ADMIN" or "USER" will be allowed access, which goes against the original intent. An attacker may be able to use this debug information to craft an attack on the system.
Illustrative examples
Real CVEs that MITRE cites as examples of this weakness.
- CVE-2002-1981 — Roles have access to dangerous procedures (Accessible entities).
- CVE-2002-1671 — Untrusted object/method gets access to clipboard (Accessible entities).
- CVE-2004-2204 — Gain privileges using functions/tags that should be restricted (Accessible entities).
- CVE-2000-0315 — Traceroute program allows unprivileged users to modify source address of packet (Accessible entities).
- CVE-2004-0380 — Bypass domain restrictions using a particular file that references unsafe URI schemes (Accessible entities).
- CVE-2002-1154 — Script does not restrict access to an update command, leading to resultant disk consumption and filled error logs (Accessible entities).
- CVE-2002-1145 — "public" database user can use stored procedure to modify data controlled by the database owner (Unsafe privileged actions).
- CVE-2000-0506 — User with capability can prevent setuid program from dropping privileges (Unsafe privileged actions).
- CVE-2002-2042 — Allows attachment to and modification of privileged processes (Unsafe privileged actions).
- CVE-2000-1212 — User with privilege can edit raw underlying object using unprotected method (Unsafe privileged actions).
- CVE-2005-1742 — Inappropriate actions allowed by a particular role(Unsafe privileged actions).
- CVE-2001-1480 — Untrusted entity allowed to access the system clipboard (Unsafe privileged actions).
- CVE-2001-1551 — Extra Linux capability allows bypass of system-specified restriction (Unsafe privileged actions).
- CVE-2001-1166 — User with debugging rights can read entire process (Unsafe privileged actions).
- CVE-2005-1816 — Non-root admins can add themselves or others to the root admin group (Unsafe privileged actions).
- CVE-2005-2173 — Users can change certain properties of objects to perform otherwise unauthorized actions (Unsafe privileged actions).
- CVE-2005-2027 — Certain debugging commands not restricted to just the administrator, allowing registry modification and infoleak (Unsafe privileged actions).
Terminology & mappings
Mapped taxonomies
- PLOVER: Unsafe Privilege
Attack patterns
CAPEC attack patterns that exploit this weakness.
Frequently asked questions
Common questions about CWE-267.
- What is CWE-267?
- A particular privilege, role, capability, or right can be used to perform unsafe actions that were not intended, even when it is assigned to the correct entity.
- What CVEs are caused by CWE-267?
- 59 recorded CVEs are attributed to CWE-267, including CVE-2025-41244, CVE-2023-22647, CVE-2026-29646. 1 are listed in CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog.
- How do you prevent CWE-267?
- Very carefully manage the setting, management, and handling of privileges. Explicitly manage trust zones in the software.
- What are the consequences of CWE-267?
- Exploiting CWE-267 can lead to: Gain Privileges or Assume Identity.
- Is CWE-267 actively exploited?
- Yes. 1 CWE-267 vulnerabilities are in CISA's KEV catalog of actively exploited flaws, out of 59 recorded CVEs.
References
- MITRE CWE definition (CWE-267) (opens in a new tab)
- CWE-267 vulnerabilities on NVD (opens in a new tab)
- Learn: What is a CWE?
Weakness data is sourced from the MITRE CWE catalog (v4.20). CVE associations are aggregated and kept current by RadicalNotion.AI.
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