MISC.PRIVILEGE : Incorrect Privilege Assignment

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CodeSonar^® 9.2p0

CONFIDENTIAL

CodeSecure Inc

C and C++

MISC.PRIVILEGE : Incorrect Privilege Assignment

Summary

FIXME

Properties

Class Name

Incorrect Privilege Assignment

Significance

security

Mnemonic

MISC.PRIVILEGE

Categories

CWE	CWE:266	Incorrect Privilege Assignment
	CWE:271	Privilege Dropping / Lowering Errors
	CWE:648	Incorrect Use of Privileged APIs
CERT-C	CERT-C:POS36-C	Observe correct revocation order while relinquishing privileges
	CERT-C:POS37-C	Ensure that privilege relinquishment is successful
OWASP-2021	OWASP-2021:A4	Insecure design
OWASP-2025	OWASP-2025:A06	Insecure Design

Availability

Available for C and C++.

Enabling

Checks for this warning class are disabled by default. To enable them, add the following WARNING_FILTER rule to the project configuration file.

WARNING_FILTER += allow class="Incorrect Privilege Assignment"

Example

#include <unistd.h>
#include <assert.h>

int incorrect_privilege_assignment(void)
{
    /* Assert that we're running as root, because that's the context. */
    assert(geteuid() == 0);

    /* Set the effective uid to the real uid */
    (void) setuid(getuid());

    /* If the effective uid is non-zero then the following will fail
       to set the saved gid, which erroneously allows gid privileges
       to be restored later */
    (void) setgid(getgid()); /* 'Incorrect Privilege Assignment' warning issued here */
    return 0;
}

void correct_privilege_assignment(void)
{
    /* Assert that we're running as root, because that's the context. */
    assert(geteuid() == 0);

    /* Fully relinquish gid privileges first while the effective
       uid is still zero. */
    (void) setgid(getgid());

    (void) setuid(getuid()); /* No warning issued here */
}

extern int dummy(void);
int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
    if (dummy())
        incorrect_privilege_assignment();
    else
        correct_privilege_assignment();
    return 0;
}

Relevant Configuration File Parameters

The following configuration file parameters affect checks for this warning class.

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