CWE-602βClient-Side Enforcement of Server-Side Security
PUBLISHEDweakness recordMedium
released 2007-05-07 Β· last modified 2025-12-11
Metadata
- CWE ID:
- CWE-602
- Abstraction:
- Class
- Structure:
- Simple
- Status:
- Draft
- Release Date:
- 2007-05-07
- Latest Modification Date:
- 2025-12-11
Weakness Name
Client-Side Enforcement of Server-Side Security
Description
The product is composed of a server that relies on the client to implement a mechanism that is intended to protect the server.
When the server relies on protection mechanisms placed on the client side, an attacker can modify the client-side behavior to bypass the protection mechanisms, resulting in potentially unexpected interactions between the client and server. The consequences will vary, depending on what the mechanisms are trying to protect.
Common Consequences
- Scope:
- Access Control, Availability
- Impact:
- Bypass Protection Mechanism, DoS: Crash, Exit, or Restart
- Notes:
- Client-side validation checks can be easily bypassed, allowing malformed or unexpected input to pass into the application, potentially as trusted data. This may lead to unexpected states, behaviors and possibly a resulting crash.
- Scope:
- Access Control
- Impact:
- Bypass Protection Mechanism, Gain Privileges or Assume Identity
- Notes:
- Client-side checks for authentication can be easily bypassed, allowing clients to escalate their access levels and perform unintended actions.