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Home/CWEs/CWE-732
Common Weakness Enumeration

CWE-732: Incorrect Permission Assignment

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A resource is created with permissions that allow unintended actors access.

Abstraction
Class
OWASP Top 10
A01:2021 (#1)
Exploit Likelihood
Medium
Related CVEs
0

How to mitigate

Create resources private-by-default and grant explicitly.

▪References & documentation

https://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/732.htmlNVD CWE listing

▪ How attackers exploit CWE-732

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

T1083File and Directory DiscoverydiscoveryT1134Access Token Manipulationstealth · privilege-escalationT1185Browser Session HijackingcollectionT1505Server Software ComponentpersistenceT1528Steal Application Access Tokencredential-accessT1539Steal Web Session Cookiecredential-accessT1548Abuse Elevation Control Mechanismprivilege-escalationT1550Use Alternate Authentication Materiallateral-movementT1553Subvert Trust Controlsdefense-impairmentT1554Compromise Host Software BinarypersistenceT1563Remote Service Session Hijackinglateral-movementT1574Hijack Execution Flowstealth · execution

Step-by-step: how CWE-732 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
    Persistencepersistence

    Stay in even after reboots, patches, or credential changes.

    At risk / what's stolen

    Startup hooks, scheduled tasks, config, and accounts the attacker can plant a backdoor in.

    How you defend

    Integrity monitoring of code, config, and scheduled tasks; short-lived credentials.

  3. 3
    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.

  4. 4
    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.

  5. 5
    Discoverydiscovery

    Map what else is reachable — hosts, services, data stores, and accounts.

    At risk / what's stolen

    Internal topology, service inventory, and data locations the attacker enumerates.

    How you defend

    Network segmentation and detection of unusual internal scanning.

  6. 6
    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.

  7. 7
    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-732. New matches appear here as the crawler indexes them.