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Home/CWEs/CWE-648
Common Weakness Enumeration

CWE-648: Incorrect Use of Privileged APIs

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The product does not conform to the API requirements for a function call that requires extra privileges. This could allow attackers to gain privileges by causing the function to be called incorrectly.

Abstraction
Base
Related CVEs
0

▪References & documentation

https://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/648.htmlNVD CWE listing

▪ How attackers exploit CWE-648

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

T1185Browser Session HijackingcollectionT1548Abuse Elevation Control Mechanismprivilege-escalationT1550Use Alternate Authentication Materiallateral-movementT1563Remote Service Session Hijackinglateral-movement

Step-by-step: how CWE-648 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
    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.

  2. 2
    Lateral movementlateral-movement

    Pivot from the compromised system to others on the network.

    At risk / what's stolen

    Adjacent servers, databases, and internal services reachable from the foothold.

    How you defend

    Segmentation, per-service auth, and blocking reused credentials across systems.

  3. 3
    Collectioncollection

    Gather the valuable data before taking it out.

    At risk / what's stolen

    Databases, files, customer records, source code, and business data.

    How you defend

    Data-access monitoring, encryption at rest, and least-privilege data access.

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-648. New matches appear here as the crawler indexes them.