CWE-283 Base Draft

Unverified Ownership

This vulnerability occurs when an application fails to confirm that a user has legitimate ownership rights to a sensitive resource before allowing them to perform actions on it.

Definition

What is CWE-283?

This vulnerability occurs when an application fails to confirm that a user has legitimate ownership rights to a sensitive resource before allowing them to perform actions on it.
At its core, this flaw is about broken authorization. The application might check if a user is authenticated but then skips the crucial second step: verifying that the specific data or function they're trying to access actually belongs to them. This often happens when developers use an identifier from the client (like an ID in a URL, form field, or cookie) to directly fetch or modify a database record without first checking if the current session is authorized for that exact record. Exploiting this weakness is a primary goal for attackers, leading directly to data breaches and privilege escalation. For example, by simply changing a number in a URL parameter, an attacker could view another user's private messages, financial details, or administrative panels. To prevent this, every single request for a user-specific resource must be validated against the current session's ownership rights, ensuring the user is only ever acting upon resources they truly own.
Auswirkungen in der Praxis

Real-world CVEs caused by CWE-283

  • CVE-2001-0178

    Program does not verify the owner of a UNIX socket that is used for sending a password.

  • CVE-2004-2012

    Owner of special device not checked, allowing root.

Wie Angreifer es ausnutzen

Angreiferpfad Schritt für Schritt

  1. 1

    This function is part of a privileged program that takes input from users with potentially lower privileges.

  2. 2

    This code does not confirm that the process to be killed is owned by the requesting user, thus allowing an attacker to kill arbitrary processes.

  3. 3

    This function remedies the problem by checking the owner of the process before killing it:

Verwundbares Codebeispiel

Vulnerable Python

This function is part of a privileged program that takes input from users with potentially lower privileges.

Verwundbar Python 
def killProcess(processID):
  	os.kill(processID, signal.SIGKILL)
Sicheres Codebeispiel

Secure Python

This function remedies the problem by checking the owner of the process before killing it:

Sicher Python 
def killProcess(processID):
  		user = getCurrentUser()
```
#Check process owner against requesting user* 
  		if getProcessOwner(processID) == user:
  		```
  			os.kill(processID, signal.SIGKILL)
  			return
  		else:
  			print("You cannot kill a process you don't own")
  			return
What changed: the unsafe sink is replaced (or the input is validated/escaped) so the same payload no longer triggers the weakness.
Präventions-Checkliste

How to prevent CWE-283

  • Architecture and Design / Operation Very carefully manage the setting, management, and handling of privileges. Explicitly manage trust zones in the software.
  • Architecture and Design Consider following the principle of separation of privilege. Require multiple conditions to be met before permitting access to a system resource.
Erkennungssignale

How to detect CWE-283

SAST High

Führe statische Analyse (SAST) auf der Codebasis aus und suche im Datenfluss nach dem unsicheren Muster.

DAST Moderate

Führe dynamische Application-Security-Tests gegen den Live-Endpoint aus.

Runtime Moderate

Beobachte Runtime-Logs auf ungewöhnliche Exception-Traces, fehlerhafte Eingaben oder Versuche, Autorisierung zu umgehen.

Code review Moderate

Code Review: Markiere jeden neuen Code, der Eingaben von dieser Oberfläche ohne validierte Framework-Helper verarbeitet.

Plexicus Auto-Fix

Plexicus erkennt CWE-283 automatisch und öffnet in unter 60 Sekunden einen Fix-PR.

Codex Remedium scannt jeden Commit, identifiziert genau diese Schwachstelle und liefert einen reviewer-ready Pull Request mit dem Patch. Keine Tickets. Keine Hand-offs.

Demo anfordern Plexicus kostenlos testen
Häufig gestellte Fragen

Frequently asked questions

Was ist CWE-283?

This vulnerability occurs when an application fails to confirm that a user has legitimate ownership rights to a sensitive resource before allowing them to perform actions on it.

Wie gravierend ist CWE-283?

MITRE hat für diese Schwachstelle keine Exploit-Wahrscheinlichkeit veröffentlicht. Behandle sie als mittlere Auswirkung, bis dein Threat Model anderes belegt.

Welche Sprachen oder Plattformen sind von CWE-283 betroffen?

MITRE hat für diese CWE keine betroffenen Plattformen spezifiziert — sie kann in den meisten Anwendungs-Stacks auftreten.

Wie kann ich CWE-283 verhindern?

Very carefully manage the setting, management, and handling of privileges. Explicitly manage trust zones in the software. Consider following the principle of separation of privilege. Require multiple conditions to be met before permitting access to a system resource.

Wie erkennt und behebt Plexicus CWE-283?

Die SAST-Engine von Plexicus erkennt die Datenfluss-Signatur von CWE-283 bei jedem Commit. Bei einem Treffer öffnet unser Codex-Remedium-Agent einen Fix-PR mit korrigiertem Code, Tests und einer einzeiligen Zusammenfassung für den Reviewer.

Wo erfahre ich mehr über CWE-283?

MITRE veröffentlicht die kanonische Definition unter https://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/283.html. Für ergänzende Hinweise kannst du auch die OWASP- und NIST-Dokumentation heranziehen.

Verwandte Schwachstellen

Weaknesses related to CWE-283

CWE-282 Parent

Improper Ownership Management

This vulnerability occurs when a system incorrectly assigns or fails to verify which user or process rightfully controls a specific object…

CWE-708 Sibling

Incorrect Ownership Assignment

This vulnerability occurs when a system grants ownership of a resource to an entity that should not have that level of control, placing it…

Ressourcen

Further reading

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