CAPEC-212: Functionality Misuse

MITRE CAPEC attack pattern

Description

An adversary leverages a legitimate capability of an application in such a way as to achieve a negative technical impact. The system functionality is not altered or modified but used in a way that was not intended. This is often accomplished through the overuse of a specific functionality or by leveraging functionality with design flaws that enables the adversary to gain access to unauthorized, sensitive data.

Where this sits in the chain

A finding maps to a weakness (CWE), a weakness is exploited by an attack pattern (CAPEC), and an attack pattern shows up in ATT&CK as observed adversary behaviour. This page is the middle hop.

Weaknesses exploited: CWE-1242, CWE-1246, CWE-1281

Prerequisites

• The adversary has the capability to interact with the application directly.The target system does not adequately implement safeguards to prevent misuse of authorized actions/processes.

Skills required

• Low: General computer knowledge about how applications are launched, how they interact with input/output, and how they are configured.

Consequences

• Confidentiality: Gain Privileges
• Confidentiality, Integrity, Availability: Other

Mitigations

• Perform comprehensive threat modeling, a process of identifying, evaluating, and mitigating potential threats to the application. This effort can help reveal potentially obscure application functionality that can be manipulated for malicious purposes.
• When implementing security features, consider how they can be misused and compromised.

Source

• MITRE CAPEC CAPEC-212