1438
Scope Impact Likelihood
The exploitation of a weakness in low-privileged areas of
the software can be leveraged to reach higher-privileged
areas without having to overcome any additional obstacles.
Detection Methods
Automated Static Analysis - Binary or Bytecode
According to SOAR, the following detection techniques may be useful: Cost effective for partial
coverage: Compare binary / bytecode to application permission manifest
Effectiveness = SOAR Partial
Manual Static Analysis - Source Code
According to SOAR, the following detection techniques may be useful: Highly cost effective:
Manual Source Code Review (not inspections) Cost effective for partial coverage: Focused
Manual Spotcheck - Focused manual analysis of source
Effectiveness = High
Architecture or Design Review
According to SOAR, the following detection techniques may be useful: Highly cost effective:
Inspection (IEEE 1028 standard) (can apply to requirements, design, source code, etc.) Formal
Methods / Correct-By-Construction Cost effective for partial coverage: Attack Modeling
Effectiveness = High
Potential Mitigations
Phase: Architecture and Design
Break up privileges between different modules, objects, or entities. Minimize the interfaces
between modules and require strong access control between them.
Demonstrative Examples
Example 1:
Single sign-on technology is intended to make it easier for users to access multiple resources or
domains without having to authenticate each time. While this is highly convenient for the user and
attempts to address problems with psychological acceptability, it also means that a compromise of
a user's credentials can provide immediate access to all other resources or domains.
Example 2:
The traditional UNIX privilege model provides root with arbitrary access to all resources, but
root is frequently the only user that has privileges. As a result, administrative tasks require root
privileges, even if those tasks are limited to a small area, such as updating user manpages. Some
UNIX flavors have a "bin" user that is the owner of system executables, but since root relies on
executables owned by bin, a compromise of the bin account can be leveraged for root privileges by
modifying a bin-owned executable, such as CVE-2007-4238.
Observed Examples
Reference Description
CVE-2021-33096 Improper isolation of shared resource in a network-on-chip leads to denial of
service
https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2021-33096
CVE-2019-6260 Baseboard Management Controller (BMC) device implements Advanced Highperformance
Bus (AHB) bridges that do not require authentication for arbitrary
read and write access to the BMC's physical address space from the host, and
possibly the network [REF-1138].
https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2019-6260
CWE Version 4.14
CWE-654: Reliance on a Single Factor in a Security Decision
CWE-654: Reliance on a Single Factor in a Security Decision