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Home/CWEs/CWE-302
Common Weakness Enumeration

CWE-302: Authentication Bypass by Assumed-Immutable Data

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The authentication scheme or implementation uses key data elements that are assumed to be immutable, but can be controlled or modified by the attacker.

Abstraction
Base
Related CVEs
0

▪References & documentation

https://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/302.htmlNVD CWE listing

▪ How attackers exploit CWE-302

MITRE ATT&CK techniques associated with this weakness class (mapped via MITRE CAPEC). A vulnerability of this type could let an adversary carry out:

T1134Access Token Manipulationstealth · privilege-escalationT1528Steal Application Access Tokencredential-accessT1539Steal Web Session Cookiecredential-accessT1562Impair DefensesstealthT1574Hijack Execution Flowstealth · execution

Step-by-step: how CWE-302 gets exploited

A stage-by-stage walkthrough of the attack, mapped to the real MITRE ATT&CK tactics for this weakness — what the attacker is trying to do, what's at risk (what can be stolen or damaged), and how you defend. Understanding the playbook is how you shut it down.

  1. 1
    Executionexecution

    Run attacker-chosen code or commands on the system.

    At risk / what's stolen

    Application logic and the host runtime — an attacker can execute arbitrary code or commands.

    How you defend

    Least-privilege runtime, sandboxing, and safe deserialization/parsing.

  2. 2
    Privilege escalationprivilege-escalation

    Gain higher privileges — from a limited account to admin/root.

    At risk / what's stolen

    Over-permissioned services, weak file/permission boundaries, and setuid paths.

    How you defend

    Drop privileges, enforce least privilege, and lock down file permissions.

  3. 3
    Credential accesscredential-access

    Steal passwords, tokens, keys, and session material.

    At risk / what's stolen

    Passwords, API keys, session tokens, SSH/TLS keys, and secrets in memory, env, or config.

    How you defend

    Secret managers, short-lived tokens, and no secrets in code/env/logs.

This is a defensive, conceptual walkthrough for education — stages reflect MITRE ATT&CK tactics associated with this weakness class, not a working exploit. Not every attack uses every stage.

▪ Related CVEs

No CVEs in the Gold index currently reference CWE-302. New matches appear here as the crawler indexes them.