CWE-782—Exposed IOCTL with Insufficient Access Control

Weakness Name

Exposed IOCTL with Insufficient Access Control

Description

The product implements an IOCTL with functionality that should be restricted, but it does not properly enforce access control for the IOCTL.

When an IOCTL contains privileged functionality and is exposed unnecessarily, attackers may be able to access this functionality by invoking the IOCTL. Even if the functionality is benign, if the programmer has assumed that the IOCTL would only be accessed by a trusted process, there may be little or no validation of the incoming data, exposing weaknesses that would never be reachable if the attacker cannot call the IOCTL directly. The implementations of IOCTLs will differ between operating system types and versions, so the methods of attack and prevention may vary widely.

Common Consequences

Scope:

Integrity, Availability, Confidentiality

Impact:

Varies by Context

Notes:

Attackers can invoke any functionality that the IOCTL offers. Depending on the functionality, the consequences may include code execution, denial-of-service, and theft of data.

Related Weaknesses

• CWE-749Exposed Dangerous Method or FunctionLow
• CWE-781Improper Address Validation in IOCTL with METHOD_NEITHER I/O Control Code