What is CWE-863: Incorrect Authorization?+
CWE-863: Incorrect Authorization is a Common Weakness Enumeration (CWE) entry maintained by MITRE. The product performs an authorization check when an actor attempts to access a resource or perform an action, but it does not correctly perform the check.
Is CWE-863 in the CWE Top 25 Most Dangerous Software Weaknesses?+
Yes. CWE-863 ranked #17 in the CWE Top 25 for 2024, associated with 969 CVEs that year. The CWE Top 25 highlights the most common and impactful software weaknesses based on real-world vulnerability data.
What are the security consequences of Incorrect Authorization?+
If exploited, CWE-863 (Incorrect Authorization) it can compromise Confidentiality, Integrity, Access Control and Availability, leading to outcomes such as Read Application Data, Read Files or Directories, Modify Application Data, Modify Files or Directories, Gain Privileges or Assume Identity and Bypass Protection Mechanism.
How do you prevent or mitigate Incorrect Authorization?+
Recommended mitigations for CWE-863 include: Divide the product into anonymous, normal, privileged, and administrative areas. Reduce the attack surface by carefully mapping roles with data and functionality. Use role-based access control (RBAC) [REF-229] to enforce the roles at the appropriate boundaries. Note that this approach may not protect against horizontal authorization, i.e., it will not protect a user from attacking others with the same role. Ensure that access control checks are performed related to the business logic. These checks may be different than the access control checks that are applied to more generic resources such as files, connections, processes, memory, and database records. For example, a database may restrict access for medical records to a specific database user, but each record might only be intended to be accessible to the patient and the patient's doctor [REF-7]. For web applications, make sure that the access control mechanism is enforced correctly at the server side on every page. Users should not be able to access any unauthorized functionality or information by simply requesting direct access to that page. One way to do this is to ensure that all pages containing sensitive information are not cached, and that all such pages restrict access to requests that are accompanied by an active and authenticated session token associated with a user who has the required permissions to access that page.
How is Incorrect Authorization detected?+
CWE-863 can be detected using Automated Dynamic Analysis, Manual Analysis, Manual Static Analysis - Binary or Bytecode, Dynamic Analysis with Automated Results Interpretation, Dynamic Analysis with Manual Results Interpretation and Manual Static Analysis - Source Code. Combining automated tooling with manual review typically yields the best coverage.
Which programming languages are affected by Incorrect Authorization?+
CWE-863 commonly affects Not Language-Specific. Note that weaknesses are often language-agnostic patterns, so secure coding practices apply broadly.
What are real-world examples of Incorrect Authorization?+
MITRE documents real CVEs mapped to CWE-863, including CVE-2025-24839, CVE-2025-32796, CVE-2021-39155, CVE-2019-15900 and CVE-2009-2213. You can look up the full details of each CVE, including CVSS scores and remediation guidance, on our CVE Lookup tool.
What is the difference between a CWE and a CVE?+
A CWE (Common Weakness Enumeration) like CWE-863 describes a category of software weakness — the underlying flaw type. A CVE (Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures) identifies a specific, real-world vulnerability in a particular product. In short, a CWE is the kind of mistake, and a CVE is an instance of that mistake being found in software.