CWE-749: Exposed Dangerous Method or Function

MITRE CWE weakness

Description

The product provides an Applications Programming Interface (API) or similar interface for interaction with external actors, but the interface includes a dangerous method or function that is not properly restricted.

This weakness can lead to a wide variety of resultant weaknesses, depending on the behavior of the exposed method. It can apply to any number of technologies and approaches, such as ActiveX controls, Java functions, IOCTLs, and so on. The exposure can occur in a few different ways: The function/method was never intended to be exposed to outside actors. The function/method was only intended to be accessible to a limited set of actors, such as Internet-based access from a single web site.

Common consequences

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

Mitigations

Architecture and Design — If you must expose a method, make sure to perform input validation on all arguments, limit access to authorized parties, and protect against all possible vulnerabilities.

Architecture and Design — Identify all exposed functionality. Explicitly list all functionality that must be exposed to some user or set of users. Identify which functionality may be: accessible to all users restricted to a small set of privileged users prevented from being directly accessible at all Ensure that the implemented code follows these expectations. This includes setting the appropriate access modifiers where applicable (public, private, protected, etc.) or not marking ActiveX controls safe-for-scripting.

References

• CWE page: https://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/749.html
• CWE list: https://cwe.mitre.org/data/index.html