Base weakness
Draft
CWE-281: Improper Preservation of Permissions
The product does not preserve permissions or incorrectly preserves permissions when copying, restoring, or sharing objects, which can cause them to have less restrictive permissions than intended.
Last updated
203
Recorded CVEs
With this primary weakness
1
KEVs
In the CISA KEV catalog
Not rated
Likelihood of exploit
Per MITRE
Base
Abstraction
MITRE classification
Overview
CWE-281 (Improper Preservation of Permissions) 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
203 recorded CVEs are caused by CWE-281 (Improper Preservation of Permissions), including 1 in CISA's KEV (Known Exploited Vulnerabilities) catalog. KEVs are shown first. 10 new CWE-281 CVEs have been recorded so far in 2026 (52 in 2025).