CWE-268
Privilege Chaining
Common consequences1
- Access ControlGain Privileges or Assume Identity
A user can be given or gain access rights of another user. This can give the user unauthorized access to sensitive information including the access information of another user.
Potential mitigations3
- Architecture and Design
Consider following the principle of separation of privilege. Require multiple conditions to be met before permitting access to a system resource.
- Architecture and DesignOperation
Very carefully manage the setting, management, and handling of privileges. Explicitly manage trust zones in the software.
- Architecture and DesignOperation
Run your code using the lowest privileges that are required to accomplish the necessary tasks [REF-76]. If possible, create isolated accounts with limited privileges that are only used for a single task. That way, a successful attack will not immediately give the attacker access to the rest of the software or its environment. For example, database applications rarely need to run as the database administrator, especially in day-to-day operations.
Relationships1
- ChildOfCWE-269
CVEs referencing this CWE24
| CVE | Description | Severity | EPSS | Flags | Modified |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CVE-2025-49741 | No cwe for this issue in Microsoft Edge (Chromium-based) allows an unauthorized attacker to disclose information over a network. | HIGH7.5 | 3.38%p87 | PoC | 2026-02-13 |
| CVE-2019-3844 | It was discovered that a systemd service that uses DynamicUser property can get new privileges through the execution of SUID binaries, which would allow to create binaries owned by the service transient group with the setgid bit set. A local attacker may use this flaw to access resources that will be owned by a potentially different service in the future, when the GID will be recycled. | HIGH7.8 | 0.89%p55 | Functional | 2025-06-09 |
| CVE-2025-32445 | Argo Events is an event-driven workflow automation framework for Kubernetes. A user with permission to create/modify EventSource and Sensor custom resources can gain privileged access to the host system and cluster, even without having direct administrative privileges. The EventSource and Sensor CRs allow the corresponding orchestrated pod to be customized with spec.template and spec.template.container (with type k8s.io/api/core/v1.Container), thus, any specification under container such as command, args, securityContext , volumeMount can be specified, and applied to the EventSource or Sensor pod. With these, a user would be able to gain privileged access to the cluster host, if he/she specified the EventSource/Sensor CR with some particular properties under template. This vulnerability is fixed in v1.9.6. | CRITICAL10.0 | 0.67%p47 | 2026-04-15 | |
| CVE-2024-1250 | An issue has been discovered in GitLab EE affecting all versions starting from 16.8 before 16.8.2. When a user is assigned a custom role with manage_group_access_tokens permission, they may be able to create group access tokens with Owner privileges, which may lead to privilege escalation. | MEDIUM6.5 | 0.55%p42 | 2026-06-02 | |
| CVE-2024-1299 | A privilege escalation vulnerability was discovered in GitLab affecting versions 16.8 prior to 16.8.4 and 16.9 prior to 16.9.2. It was possible for a user with custom role of `manage_group_access_tokens` to rotate group access tokens with owner privileges. | HIGH8.1 | 0.54%p41 | 2024-12-11 | |
| CVE-2023-20194 | A vulnerability in the ERS API of Cisco ISE could allow an authenticated, remote attacker to read arbitrary files on the underlying operating system of an affected device. To exploit this vulnerability, an attacker must have valid Administrator-level privileges on the affected device. This vulnerability is due to improper privilege management in the ERS API. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending a crafted request to an affected device. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to elevate their privileges beyond the sphere of their intended access level, which would allow them to obtain sensitive information from the underlying operating system. Note: The ERS is not enabled by default. To verify the status of the ERS API in the Admin GUI, choose Administration > Settings > API Settings > API Service Settings. | MEDIUM4.9 | 0.54%p41 | 2024-11-21 | |
| CVE-2022-1003 | One of the API in Mattermost version 6.3.0 and earlier fails to properly protect the permissions, which allows the system administrators to combine the two distinct privileges/capabilities in a way that allows them to override certain restricted configurations like EnableUploads. | MEDIUM4.9 | 0.48%p38 | 2024-12-06 | |
| CVE-2024-4877 | OpenVPN version 2.4.0 through 2.6.10 on Windows allows an external, lesser privileged process to create a named pipe which the OpenVPN GUI component would connect to allowing it to escalate its privileges | HIGH8.8 | 0.41%p33 | 2025-04-29 | |
| CVE-2021-3932 | twill is vulnerable to Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) | MEDIUM4.3 | 0.39%p31 | 2024-11-21 | |
| CVE-2026-3888 | Local privilege escalation in snapd on Linux allows local attackers to get root privilege by re-creating snap's private /tmp directory when systemd-tmpfiles is configured to automatically clean up this directory. This issue affects Ubuntu 16.04 LTS, 18.04 LTS, 20.04 LTS, 22.04 LTS, and 24.04 LTS. | HIGH7.8 | 0.38%p30 | PoC | 2026-06-04 |
| CVE-2025-36124 | IBM WebSphere Application Server Liberty 17.0.0.3 through 25.0.0.8 could allow a remote attacker to bypass security restrictions caused by a failure to honor JMS messaging configuration | HIGH7.5 | 0.37%p28 | 2025-08-14 | |
| CVE-2023-0759 | Privilege Chaining in GitHub repository cockpit-hq/cockpit prior to 2.3.8. | HIGH8.8 | 0.34%p26 | 2025-03-24 | |
| CVE-2023-5839 | Privilege Chaining in GitHub repository hestiacp/hestiacp prior to 1.8.9. | HIGH7.8 | 0.29%p20 | 2024-11-21 | |
| CVE-2023-0971 | A logic error in SiLabs Z/IP Gateway SDK 7.18.02 and earlier allows authentication to be bypassed, remote administration of Z-Wave controllers, and S0/S2 encryption keys to be recovered. | HIGH8.8 | 0.22%p13 | 2024-12-06 | |
| CVE-2025-0889 | Prior to 25.2, a local authenticated attacker can elevate privileges on a system with Privilege Management for Windows installed, via the manipulation of COM objects under certain circumstances where an EPM policy allows for automatic privilege elevation of a user process. | HIGH7.8 | 0.20%p9 | 2025-07-31 | |
| CVE-2023-2250 | A flaw was found in the Open Cluster Management (OCM) when a user have access to the worker nodes which has the cluster-manager-registration-controller or cluster-manager deployments. A malicious user can take advantage of this and bind the cluster-admin to any service account or using the service account to list all secrets for all kubernetes namespaces, leading into a cluster-level privilege escalation. | MEDIUM6.7 | 0.20%p10 | 2025-02-04 | |
| CVE-2025-32955 | Harden-Runner is a CI/CD security agent that works like an EDR for GitHub Actions runners. Versions from 0.12.0 to before 2.12.0 are vulnerable to `disable-sudo` bypass. Harden-Runner includes a policy option `disable-sudo` to prevent the GitHub Actions runner user from using sudo. This is implemented by removing the runner user from the sudoers file. However, this control can be bypassed as the runner user, being part of the docker group, can interact with the Docker daemon to launch privileged containers or access the host filesystem. This allows the attacker to regain root access or restore the sudoers file, effectively bypassing the restriction. This issue has been patched in version 2.12.0. | MEDIUM6.0 | 0.18%p8 | 2026-04-15 | |
| CVE-2025-2903 | An attacker with knowledge of creating user accounts during VM deployment on Google Cloud Platform (GCP) using the OS Login feature, can login via SSH gaining command-line control of the operating system. This allows an attacker to gain access to sensitive data stored on the VM, install malicious software, and disrupt or disable the functionality of the VM. | NONE | 0.17%p6 | 2026-04-15 | |
| CVE-2024-47045 | Privilege chaining issue exists in the installer of e-Tax software(common program). If this vulnerability is exploited, a malicious DLL prepared by an attacker may be executed with higher privileges than the application privilege. | HIGH7.8 | 0.15%p4 | 2026-04-15 | |
| CVE-2025-7973 | A security issue exists in FactoryTalk ViewPoint version 14.0 or below due to improper handling of MSI repair operations. During a repair, attackers can hijack the cscript.exe console window, which runs with SYSTEM privileges. This can be exploited to spawn an elevated command prompt, enabling full privilege escalation. | NONE | 0.13%p3 | 2026-04-15 | |
| CVE-2025-2297 | Prior to version 25.4.270.0, a local authenticated attacker can manipulate user profile files to add illegitimate challenge response codes into the local user registry under certain conditions. This allows users with the ability to edit their user profile files to elevate their privileges to administrator. | HIGH7.8 | 0.13%p3 | 2025-08-04 | |
| CVE-2025-20112 | A vulnerability in multiple Cisco Unified Communications and Contact Center Solutions products could allow an authenticated, local attacker to elevate privileges to root on an affected device. This vulnerability is due to excessive permissions that have been assigned to system commands. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by executing crafted commands on the underlying operating system. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to escape the restricted shell and gain root privileges on the underlying operating system of an affected device. To successfully exploit this vulnerability, an attacker would need administrative access to the ESXi hypervisor. | MEDIUM5.1 | 0.12%p2 | 2026-04-15 | |
| CVE-2025-64701 | QND Premium/Advance/Standard Ver.11.0.9i and prior contains a privilege escalation vulnerability, which may allow a user who can log in to a Windows system with the affected product to gain administrator privileges. As a result, sensitive information may be accessed or altered, and arbitrary actions may be performed. | NONE | 0.11%p2 | 2026-04-15 | |
| CVE-2026-32325 | Privilege chaining issue exists in ServerView Agents for Windows V11.60.04 and earlier. If this vulnerability is exploited, a local authenticated attacker who can log in to the server where the affected product is installed may obtain SYSTEM privilege. | NONE | 0.10%p1 | 2026-06-01 |