What CVEs are caused by CWE-863?

2,019 recorded CVEs are attributed to CWE-863, including CVE-2025-54253, CVE-2019-7192, CVE-2025-21479. 16 are listed in CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog.

What are the consequences of CWE-863?

Exploiting CWE-863 can lead to: Read Application Data, Read Files or Directories, Modify Application Data, Modify Files or Directories, Gain Privileges or Assume Identity, Bypass Protection Mechanism.

Is CWE-863 actively exploited?

Yes. 16 CWE-863 vulnerabilities are in CISA's KEV catalog of actively exploited flaws, out of 2,019 recorded CVEs.

Class weakness

Incomplete

CWE-863: Incorrect Authorization

Also known as: AuthZ

The product performs an authorization check when an actor attempts to access a resource or perform an action, but it does not correctly perform the check.

Last updated May 1, 2026

2,019

Recorded CVEs

With this primary weakness

KEVs

In the CISA KEV catalog

High

Likelihood of exploit

Per MITRE

Class

Abstraction

MITRE classification

Overview

CWE-863 (Incorrect Authorization) is a class-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.

Background

An access control list (ACL) represents who/what has permissions to a given object. Different operating systems implement (ACLs) in different ways. In UNIX, there are three types of permissions: read, write, and execute. Users are divided into three classes for file access: owner, group owner, and all other users where each class has a separate set of rights. In Windows NT, there are four basic types of permissions for files: "No access", "Read access", "Change access", and "Full control". Windows NT extends the concept of three types of users in UNIX to include a list of users and groups along with their associated permissions. A user can create an object (file) and assign specified permissions to that object.

Real-world CVEs

2,019 recorded CVEs are caused by CWE-863 (Incorrect Authorization), including 16 in CISA's KEV (Known Exploited Vulnerabilities) catalog. KEVs are shown first. 683 new CWE-863 CVEs have been recorded so far in 2026 (450 in 2025).

Showing 12 of 2,019 recorded CWE-863 CVEs. Track new ones as they are published and get AI-written analysis and fixes.

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Common consequences

What can happen when CWE-863 is exploited.

Read Application Data, Read Files or Directories

Affects: Confidentiality

An attacker could bypass intended access restrictions to read sensitive data, either by reading the data directly from a data store that is not correctly restricted, or by accessing insufficiently-protected, privileged functionality to read the data.

Modify Application Data, Modify Files or Directories

Affects: Integrity

An attacker could bypass intended access restrictions to modify sensitive data, either by writing the data directly to a data store that is not correctly restricted, or by accessing insufficiently-protected, privileged functionality to write the data.

Gain Privileges or Assume Identity, Bypass Protection Mechanism

Affects: Access Control

An attacker could bypass intended access restrictions to gain privileges by modifying or reading critical data directly, or by accessing privileged functionality.

Execute Unauthorized Code or Commands

Affects: Confidentiality, Integrity, Availability

An attacker could use elevated privileges to execute unauthorized commands or code.

DoS: Crash, Exit, or Restart, DoS: Resource Consumption (CPU), DoS: Resource Consumption (Memory), DoS: Resource Consumption (Other)

Affects: Availability

An attacker could gain unauthorized access to resources on the system and excessively consume those resources, leading to a denial of service.

How it happens

When it is introduced

Typically introduced during these phases of the software lifecycle.

Architecture and Design

Implementation

Operation

Applies to

Technologies

Web Server (Often)

Database Server (Often)

How to prevent it

Practical mitigations for CWE-863, grouped by where in the lifecycle they apply.

Architecture and Design

Divide the product into anonymous, normal, privileged, and administrative areas. Reduce the attack surface by carefully mapping roles with data and functionality. Use role-based access control (RBAC) [REF-229] to enforce the roles at the appropriate boundaries.

Note that this approach may not protect against horizontal authorization, i.e., it will not protect a user from attacking others with the same role.

Architecture and Design

Ensure that access control checks are performed related to the business logic. These checks may be different than the access control checks that are applied to more generic resources such as files, connections, processes, memory, and database records. For example, a database may restrict access for medical records to a specific database user, but each record might only be intended to be accessible to the patient and the patient's doctor [REF-7].

Architecture and Design

Libraries or Frameworks

Use a vetted library or framework that does not allow this weakness to occur or provides constructs that make this weakness easier to avoid.

For example, consider using authorization frameworks such as the JAAS Authorization Framework [REF-233] and the OWASP ESAPI Access Control feature [REF-45].

Architecture and Design

For web applications, make sure that the access control mechanism is enforced correctly at the server side on every page. Users should not be able to access any unauthorized functionality or information by simply requesting direct access to that page.

One way to do this is to ensure that all pages containing sensitive information are not cached, and that all such pages restrict access to requests that are accompanied by an active and authenticated session token associated with a user who has the required permissions to access that page.

System Configuration

Installation

Use the access control capabilities of your operating system and server environment and define your access control lists accordingly. Use a "default deny" policy when defining these ACLs.

How to detect it

Automated Static Analysis

Automated static analysis is useful for detecting commonly-used idioms for authorization. A tool may be able to analyze related configuration files, such as .htaccess in Apache web servers, or detect the usage of commonly-used authorization libraries.

Generally, automated static analysis tools have difficulty detecting custom authorization schemes. Even if they can be customized to recognize these schemes, they might not be able to tell whether the scheme correctly performs the authorization in a way that cannot be bypassed or subverted by an attacker.

Effectiveness: Limited

Automated Dynamic Analysis

Automated dynamic analysis may not be able to find interfaces that are protected by authorization checks, even if those checks contain weaknesses.

Manual Analysis

This weakness can be detected using tools and techniques that require manual (human) analysis, such as penetration testing, threat modeling, and interactive tools that allow the tester to record and modify an active session.

Specifically, manual static analysis is useful for evaluating the correctness of custom authorization mechanisms.

Effectiveness: Moderate