Execution with Unnecessary Privileges
CWE-250
The product performs an operation at a privilege level that is higher than the minimum level required, which creates new weaknesses or amplifies the consequences of other weaknesses.
We track 248 vulnerabilities of this type. 100% are rated high or critical, and the average CVSS score is 8.5. 2 have been exploited in real attacks.
How this weakness is prevented
- Architecture and Design Operation: Run your code using the lowest privileges that are required to accomplish the necessary tasks. If possible, create isolated accounts with limited privileges that are only used for a single task. That way, a successful attack will not immediately give the attacker access to the rest of the software or its environment. For example, database applications rarely need to run as the database administrator, especially in day-to-day operations.
- Architecture and Design: Identify the functionality that requires additional privileges, such as access to privileged operating system resources. Wrap and centralize this functionality if possible, and isolate the privileged code as much as possible from other code. Raise privileges as late as possible, and drop them as soon as possible to avoid CWE-271. Avoid weaknesses such as CWE-288 and CWE-420 by protecting all possible communication channels that could interact with the privileged code, such as a secondary socket that is only intended to be accessed by administrators.
- Architecture and Design: Identify the functionality that requires additional privileges, such as access to privileged operating system resources. Wrap and centralize this functionality if possible, and isolate the privileged code as much as possible from other code. Raise privileges as late as possible, and drop them as soon as possible to avoid CWE-271. Avoid weaknesses such as CWE-288 and CWE-420 by protecting all possible communication channels that could interact with the privileged code, such as a secondary socket that is only intended to be accessed by administrators.
- Implementation: Perform extensive input validation for any privileged code that must be exposed to the user and reject anything that does not fit your strict requirements.
- Implementation: When dropping privileges, ensure that they have been dropped successfully to avoid CWE-273. As protection mechanisms in the environment get stronger, privilege-dropping calls may fail even if it seems like they would always succeed.
Latest Execution with Unnecessary Privileges vulnerabilities
- 8.6 High severity
Zenitel Connect: Execution with Unnecessary Privileges
The pREST database REST API in Zenitel Connect firmware before 1.11.0 signs and verifies JWTs with the platform CA private key, which is stored on a data volume shared between containers, and sets the PostgreSQL session role from the unvalidated sub claim of e
- 9.8 Critical severity
XWEB EVO: Improper Neutralization of Special Elements used in an OS Command
XWEB EVO before 5.6.2 contains a command injection vulnerability that allows unauthenticated remote attackers to execute arbitrary commands as root by exploiting the setuid-root CGI xwconsole.cgi. Attackers can supply malicious input through the sh parameter,
- 7.8 High severity
XWEB EVO: Execution with Unnecessary Privileges
XWEB EVO before 5.6.2 contains a command injection vulnerability where the setuid-root Lua CGI interpreter wlua executes system("/usr/bin/lua "+argv) on unsanitized input. Attackers can craft malicious input reached through a .lua CGI endpoint to inject arbitr
- 9.3 Critical severity
Iperius Backup: Execution with Unnecessary Privileges
Local privilege escalation vulnerability in Iperius Backup 8.8.3, due to insufficient separation between the graphical user interface running with elevated privileges and local users with low privileges. When the backup service is configured to run persistentl
- 7.2 High severity
MongoDB Server: Execution with Unnecessary Privileges
An improper privilege management issue in the sharding subsystem of MongoDB Server may allow a user holding certain shard-level administrative privileges to cause persisted internal coordination state to be reprocessed with elevated internal authority. Because
- 9.6 Critical severity
Chrome: Execution with Unnecessary Privileges
Privilege elevation in Contacts in Google Chrome on on Android prior to 157.0.8103.38 allowed a remote attacker to potentially execute arbitrary code outside the sandbox via a crafted HTML page. (Chromium security severity: Medium)
- 8.1 High severity
Chrome: Execution with Unnecessary Privileges
Privilege elevation in Mobile in Google Chrome on on iOS prior to 157.0.8103.38 allowed a remote attacker to bypass system access restrictions into a privileged page via a crafted HTML page. (Chromium security severity: Medium)
- 9.1 Critical severity
Rancher: Execution with Unnecessary Privileges
SUSE Rancher Fleet clusters reference a kubeconfig secret that the controller uses to install and manage a Fleet agent on the target cluster. The controller did not sufficiently restrict which kubeconfig secrets a Fleet Cluster object was allowed to reference.
- 8.6 High severity
NovumOS: Execution with Unnecessary Privileges
NovumOS is a custom 32-bit operating system written in Zig and x86 Assembly. Prior to version 0.25-beta.1, the `Nova` interpreter runs in Ring 0 with unrestricted kernel-memory access. Loading a malicious `.nv` script through the shell permits a local user to
- 9.0 Critical severity
CGM CLININET: Execution with Unnecessary Privileges
In the CGM CLININET application server, multiple processes responsible for HL7 communication with external systems run with root privileges while processing untrusted data received from those external systems. An attacker in adjacent network able to send data
- 9.6 Critical severity
Chrome: Execution with Unnecessary Privileges
Privilege elevation in Network in Google Chrome prior to 156.0.8078.47 allowed a remote attacker leveraging social engineering to bypass web origin policy via a crafted HTML page. (Chromium security severity: Medium)
- 8.8 High severity
Chrome: Execution with Unnecessary Privileges
Privilege elevation in Google Lens in Google Chrome prior to 156.0.8078.47 allowed a remote attacker who had compromised the renderer process to obtain sensitive information via a crafted HTML page. (Chromium security severity: Medium)
- 8.8 High severity
Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4.19: Execution with Unnecessary Privileges
The insights-runtime-extractor runs as a privileged DaemonSet (`hostPID: true`) that scans container processes for runtime fingerprinting. When scanning a container, the coordinator: 1. **fork()s** a child process 2. **setns()** into the target container's PID
- 10.0 Critical severity
AIStore framework: Execution with Unnecessary Privileges
NVIDIA AIStore for Linux contains a vulnerability in the legacy ETL Kubernetes PodSpec initialization API where a remote attacker may supply Kubernetes host-namespace and container-security settings. A successful exploit may lead to code execution, privilege e
- 9.8 Critical severity
mJobTime: Execution with Unnecessary Privileges
mJobTime through build 15.7.3.32 contains an unauthenticated SQL execution vulnerability in the Login.aspx admin panel handlers, where the runQueryButton postback and exportSqlQuery_Server PageMethod execute caller-supplied SQL against the backing Sybase SQL A
- 8.3 High severity
Chrome: Execution with Unnecessary Privileges
Privilege elevation in Sandbox in Google Chrome on on Mac prior to 155.0.8059.39 allowed a remote attacker who had compromised the renderer process to execute arbitrary code outside the sandbox via a crafted HTML page. (Chromium security severity: Medium)
- 8.8 High severity
iControl: Execution with Unnecessary Privileges
iControl is affected by a Broken Access Control vulnerability, which could allow an attacker to exploit missing authentication checks or insecure direct object references (IDOR), enabling privilege escalation and the unauthorized modification or deletion of se
- 7.8 High severity
Core: Improper Link Resolution Before File Access
A local privilege escalation vulnerability in Kiteworks could have allowed an attacker with an existing shell under a low-privileged service account to escalate to root privileges on the appliance.
- 8.7 High severity
Taskcluster is the task execution framework that supports Mozilla's continuous integration and…
Taskcluster is the task execution framework that supports Mozilla's continuous integration and release processes. Prior to version 100.3.0, Taskcluster is vulnerable to unauthenticated RCE on Taskcluster deployments with an anonymous role that exposes the Grap
- 7.8 High severity
reachy-mini-os: Execution with Unnecessary Privileges
Reachy Mini ISO for Wireless contains the necessary files to build a custom Raspberry Pi OS image for the Reachy Mini Wireless robot, using pi-gen. Prior to version 0.2.4, the Reachy Mini Wireless OS image shipped with an overly broad sudoers entry granting th
- 8.8 High severity
Rancher: Execution with Unnecessary Privileges
A vulnerability has been identified within Rancher Manager where the Fleet agent wrote resources to downstream clusters using its own cluster-admin credentials instead of the ServiceAccount pinned to the deployment. It affects multi-tenancy environments where
- 8.1 High severity
ManageEngine OpManager: Execution with Unnecessary Privileges
ZohoCorp ManageEngine OpManager and Firewall Analyzer versions 12.8.710 and below were vulnerable to a Privilege Escalation vulnerability that allowed an authenticated low-privilege user to gain Administrator privileges through Report Profile import.
- 10.0 Critical severity
MaxKB: Improper Neutralization of Special Elements used in an OS Command
MaxKB is an open-source AI assistant for enterprise. Prior to version 2.10.5-lts, assistants with a tool, MCP tool, skill, or sub-application use SandboxShellBackend, which exposes an execute shell tool without excluding it and omits execute from interrupt_on,
- 8.8 High severity
Confidential Compute Attestation: Execution with Unnecessary Privileges
A vulnerability in CRI-O checkpoint restore allows a user who can create a pod from a malicious checkpointed container to bypass the destination Kubernetes security context. The restored process may retain credentials, Linux capabilities, no_new_privs, and sec
- 9.4 Critical severity
Browsertrix is a high-fidelity, browser-based crawling service for web archiving that can be…
Browsertrix is a high-fidelity, browser-based crawling service for web archiving that can be self-hosted or used through Webrecorder's hosted instance. From 1.15.0 until 1.22.8, Browsertrix improperly sanitizes Git URLs specified as Custom Behaviors, allowing
- 8.0 High severity
strimzi-kafka-operator: Improper Privilege Management
Strimzi provides a way to run an Apache Kafka cluster on Kubernetes or OpenShift in various deployment configurations. In Strimzi 1.0.0 and earlier, an attacker who can create a Kafka custom resource can set Kafka.spec.entityOperator watchedNamespace to a targ
- 7.3 High severity
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9: Execution with Unnecessary Privileges
A privilege escalation flaw was found in the scan_mysql actor of leapp-upgrade-el9toel10 (provided by leapp-repository). During RHEL 9 to RHEL 10 upgrades, the actor runs: mysqld --validate-config --log-error-verbosity=2 directly as root in the Leapp actor con
- 9.8 Critical severity
hugo: Execution with Unnecessary Privileges
Hugo is a static site generator. From v0.161.0, Hugo executes Node tools under Node's permission model, but TailwindCSS — included in the default security.exec.allow list — requires a highly permissive configuration (--allow-addons, --allow-child-process, --al
- 8.3 High severity
Chrome: Execution with Unnecessary Privileges
Privilege elevation in WebUI in Google Chrome prior to 153.0.8010.36 allowed a remote attacker who had compromised the renderer process to potentially execute arbitrary code outside the sandbox via a crafted HTML page. (Chromium security severity: Medium)
- 9.3 Critical severity
Secure Connect Gateway 5.0 - Application: Execution with Unnecessary Privileges
Dell SCG 5.0 Appliance versions prior to 5.36.00.16 and Dell SCG 5.0 Application versions prior to 5.36.00.00, contains an Execution with Unnecessary Privileges vulnerability. An unauthenticated attacker with local access could potentially exploit this vulnera
- 8.8 High severity
Chrome: Execution with Unnecessary Privileges
Privilege elevation in Import in Google Chrome prior to 151.0.7922.173 allowed a remote attacker leveraging social engineering to potentially execute arbitrary code outside the sandbox via a crafted file. (Chromium security severity: High)
- 9.9 Critical severity
Red Hat Advanced Cluster Management for…: Execution with Unnecessary Privileges
A flaw was found in search-v2-operator. The operator's ClusterRole has permissions equivalent to a cluster administrator, allowing it to impersonate other entities, write Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) configurations, approve Certificate Signing Requests (CS
- 7.8 High severity
Cumulus Linux GA: Execution with Unnecessary Privileges
NVIDIA Cumulus Linux contains a vulnerability in the user management component, where an unprivileged user could use improper privilege management on the system. A successful exploit of this vulnerability might lead to escalation of privileges.
- 9.9 Critical severity
Red Hat Advanced Cluster Management for…: Execution with Unnecessary Privileges
A flaw was found in the multicloud-operators-subscription component of Red Hat Advanced Cluster Management (RHACM). This vulnerability allows a namespace-admin tenant to perform a confused-deputy attack by creating Subscription Custom Resources (CRs) that leve
- 8.8 High severity
i: Execution with Unnecessary Privileges
IBM i 7.6, 7.5, 7.4, and 7.3 is vulnerable to a privilege escalation as the result of a remote code execution vulnerability in the activation engine component. An authenticated attacker can execute a maliciously planted script with root authority.
- 8.8 High severity
i: Execution with Unnecessary Privileges
IBM i 7.6, 7.5, 7.4, and 7.3 could allow a remote authenticated attacker to execute arbitrary commands and obtain sensitive information due to improper privilege management.
- 8.8 High severity
Microsoft HPC Pack 2019: Execution with Unnecessary Privileges
Execution with unnecessary privileges in Microsoft High Performance Computing (HPC) Pack allows an authorized attacker to elevate privileges over a network.
- 8.8 High severity
Red Hat OpenShift AI 2.25: Execution with Unnecessary Privileges
A flaw was found in the RHOAI training-operator. This vulnerability allows a user with standard edit or admin roles in any Kubernetes namespace to escalate their privileges. Through the creation of training jobs, an attacker can impersonate service accounts, a
- 8.8 High severity
Red Hat OpenShift AI 2.25: Execution with Unnecessary Privileges
A flaw was found in odh-dashboard. This vulnerability allows an attacker, who has compromised the dashboard's Service Account (SA) token, to exploit overly broad permissions granted to the SA. This enables the attacker to escalate their privileges to cluster-a
- 8.7 High severity
Red Hat OpenShift AI 2.25: Execution with Unnecessary Privileges
A flaw was found in the Data Science Pipelines Operator (DSPO). The operator's ClusterRole, which defines its permissions, includes extensive privileges beyond what is necessary for its operation. These excessive permissions, such as the ability to execute com