CWE 284

The terms "authorization" and "access control" seem to be used interchangeably.

Very carefully manage the setting, management and handling of privileges. Explicitly manage trust zones in the software.

Phase: Architecture and Design

Ensure that appropriate compartmentalization is built into the system design and that the compartmentalization serves to allow for and further reinforce privilege separation functionality. Architects and designers should rely on the principle of least privilege to decide when it is appropriate to use and to drop system privileges.

An access control list (ACL) represents who/what has permissions to a given object. Different operating systems implement (ACLs) in different ways. In UNIX, there are three types of permissions: read, write, and execute. Users are divided into three classes for file access: owner, group owner, and all other users where each class has a separate set of rights. In Windows NT, there are four basic types of permissions for files: "No access", "Read access", "Change access", and "Full control". Windows NT extends the concept of three types of users in UNIX to include a list of users and groups along with their associated permissions. A user can create an object (file) and assign specified permissions to that object.

The name of this item implies that it is a category for general access control / authorization issues, although the description is limited to permissions.

This item needs more work. Possible sub-categories include: