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-2020-29396. 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.

CWE-267: Privilege Defined With Unsafe Actions

Critical · CVSS 9.9 · EPSS 83th

2020-12-22

CWE-267: Privilege Defined With Unsafe Actions

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

java

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).

CWE-267: Privilege Defined With Unsafe Actions

Overview

Real-world CVEs

Common consequences

How it happens

When it is introduced

How to prevent it

Code examples

Illustrative examples

Terminology & mappings

Mapped taxonomies

Attack patterns

Frequently asked questions

What is CWE-267?

What CVEs are caused by CWE-267?

How do you prevent CWE-267?

What are the consequences of CWE-267?

Is CWE-267 actively exploited?

References

Stay ahead of CWE-267

Overview

Real-world CVEs

Common consequences

How it happens

When it is introduced

How to prevent it

Code examples

Illustrative examples

Related weaknesses

Parent

Child

Terminology & mappings

Mapped taxonomies

Attack patterns

Frequently asked questions

What is CWE-267?

What CVEs are caused by CWE-267?

How do you prevent CWE-267?

What are the consequences of CWE-267?

Is CWE-267 actively exploited?

References

Stay ahead of CWE-267