Weakness · High

CWE-425: Direct Request ('Forced Browsing')

What it is

The web application does not adequately enforce appropriate authorization on all restricted URLs, scripts, or files.

2 exploited in the wildMITRE CWE 4.19.1

Severity (our rating)
High
Likelihood of exploit
Not rated by MITRE
Introduced during
Implementation, Operation
Exploited in the wild
2 known exploited CVEs

In more detail

Web applications susceptible to direct request attacks often make the false assumption that such resources can only be reached through a given navigation path and so only apply authorization at certain points in the path.

What an attacker can do

  • Read Application Data (Confidentiality, Integrity, Availability, Access Control)
  • Modify Application Data (Confidentiality, Integrity, Availability, Access Control)
  • Execute Unauthorized Code or Commands (Confidentiality, Integrity, Availability, Access Control)
  • Gain Privileges or Assume Identity (Confidentiality, Integrity, Availability, Access Control)

How to prevent it

Architecture and Design

  • Apply appropriate access control authorizations for each access to all restricted URLs, scripts or files.
  • Consider using MVC based frameworks such as Struts.

CWE-425 on MITRE's CWE site

Exploited in the wild: 2 CVEs

Vulnerabilities caused by CWE-425 that attackers have used, from CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog, newest first.

All known exploited vulnerabilities

H2 Security

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Source: MITRE Common Weakness Enumeration, CWE version 4.19.1. CWE is a trademark of The MITRE Corporation.