CWE-520: .NET Misconfiguration: Use of Impersonation
Allowing a .NET application to run at potentially escalated levels of access to the underlying operating and file systems can be dangerous and result in various forms of attacks.
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Overview
.NET server applications can optionally execute using the identity of the user authenticated to the client. The intention of this functionality is to bypass authentication and access control checks within the .NET application code. Authentication is done by the underlying web server (Microsoft Internet Information Service IIS), which passes the authenticated token, or unauthenticated anonymous token, to the .NET application. Using the token to impersonate the client, the application then relies on the settings within the NTFS directories and files to control access. Impersonation enables the application, on the server running the .NET application, to both execute code and access resources in the context of the authenticated and authorized user.
Real-world CVEs
5 recorded CVEs are caused by CWE-520 (.NET Misconfiguration: Use of Impersonation). The highest-severity and most recent are shown first. 4 new CWE-520 CVEs have been recorded so far in 2026.
- CVE-2019-25608
Iperius Backup 6.1.0 Privilege Escalation via Backup Job
High · CVSS 8.6 · EPSS 3th2026-03-22 - CVE-2026-13444
Langflow is affected by remote code execution, denial of service, path traversal, and exposed credentials due to multiple unauthenticated and insufficiently authorized API endpoints
High · CVSS 8.1 · EPSS 11th2026-07-30