CAPEC-69

How the attack unfolds

1. Explore

   The attacker looks for a way in.

   1. [Find programs with elevated priveleges] The adversary probes for programs running with elevated privileges.

      1 technique

      • Look for programs that write to the system directories or registry keys (such as HKLM, which stores a number of critical Windows environment variables). These programs are typically running with elevated privileges and have usually not been designed with security in mind. Such programs are excellent exploit targets because they yield lots of power when they break.

   2. [Find vulnerability in running program] The adversary looks for a vulnerability in the running program that would allow for arbitrary code execution with the privilege of the running program.

      3 techniques

      • Look for improper input validation
      • Look for improper failure safety. For instance when a program fails it may authorize restricted access to anyone.
      • Look for a buffer overflow which may be exploited if an adversary can inject unvalidated data.

2. Exploit

   They carry out the attack.

   3. [Execute arbitrary code] The adversary exploits the vulnerability that they have found. For instance, they can try to inject and execute arbitrary code or write to OS resources.

Prerequisites

• The targeted program runs with elevated OS privileges.

• The targeted program accepts input data from the user or from another program.

• The targeted program is giving away information about itself. Before performing such attack, an eventual attacker may need to gather information about the services running on the host target. The more the host target is verbose about the services that are running (version number of application, etc.) the more information can be gather by an attacker.

• This attack often requires communicating with the host target services directly. For instance Telnet may be enough to communicate with the host target.

Skills required

• Low skill

  An attacker can use a tool to scan and automatically launch an attack against known issues. A tool can also repeat a sequence of instructions and try to brute force the service on the host target, an example of that would be the flooding technique.

• Medium skill

  More advanced attack may require knowledge of the protocol spoken by the host service.

Signs of an attack

• The log can have a trace of abnormal activity. Also if abnormal activity is detected on the host target. For instance flooding should be seen as abnormal activity and the target host may decide to take appropriate action in order to mitigate the attack (data filtering or blocking). Resource exhaustion is also a sign of abnormal activity.

Consequences

Mitigations

• Apply the principle of least privilege.

• Validate all untrusted data.

• Apply the latest patches.

• Scan your services and disable the ones which are not needed and are exposed unnecessarily. Exposing programs increases the attack surface. Only expose the services which are needed and have security mechanisms such as authentication built around them.

• Avoid revealing information about your system (e.g., version of the program) to anonymous users.

• Make sure that your program or service fail safely. What happen if the communication protocol is interrupted suddenly? What happen if a parameter is missing? Does your system have resistance and resilience to attack? Fail safely when a resource exhaustion occurs.

• If possible use a sandbox model which limits the actions that programs can take. A sandbox restricts a program to a set of privileges and commands that make it difficult or impossible for the program to cause any damage.

• Check your program for buffer overflow and format String vulnerabilities which can lead to execution of malicious code.

• Monitor traffic and resource usage and pay attention if resource exhaustion occurs.

• Protect your log file from unauthorized modification and log forging.

Weaknesses it exploits

• CWE-15 External Control of System or Configuration Setting
• CWE-250 Execution with Unnecessary Privileges

Recent CVEs with these weaknesses

1. 5.5CVE-2025-550022026-11-06

   JupyterLab Desktop is the cross-platform desktop application for JupyterLab. Prior to 4.6.2-1, JupyterLab Desktop for macOS shipped with Electron's RunAsNode fuse enabled, allowing ELECTRON_RUN_AS_NODE to execute arbitrary Node.js code in …

2. 5.5CVE-2025-549912026-11-06

   JupyterLab Desktop is the cross-platform desktop application for JupyterLab. Prior to 4.6.2-1, JupyterLab Desktop for macOS declared the com.apple.security.cs.allow-dyld-environment-variables entitlement, allowing the dynamic linker to hon…

3. 6.6CVE-2026-956522026-11-05

   Execution with unnecessary privileges vulnerability in TÜBİTAK BİLGEM Software Technologies Research Institute pardus-usb-formatter allows Privilege Abuse. This issue affects pardus-usb-formatter: from 0.7.0 before 0.7.2.

4. 8.8CVE-2026-132922026-11-04

   IBM MQ 9.2.0.0 through 9.2.0.44 LTS, 9.3.0.0 through 9.3.0.42 LTS, 9.4.0.0 through 9.4.0.26 LTS, 9.4.0.0 through 9.4.5.1 CD, and 10.0.0.0 through 10.0.0.5 LTS and CD could allow an authenticated attacker to execute arbitrary code by inject…

5. 7.1CVE-2026-1216142026-11-03

   Docker Sandboxes versions 0.31.0 before 0.50.0 do not neutralize repository-controlled Git configuration when running certain host-side Git commands. An attacker who can modify a host repository's Git configuration, for example through a d…

6. 9.6CVE-2026-1212342026-11-03

   Privilege elevation in Contacts in Google Chrome on on Android prior to 157.0.8103.38 allowed a remote attacker to potentially execute arbitrary code outside the sandbox via a crafted HTML page. (Chromium security severity: Medium)

7. 8.1CVE-2026-1211962026-11-03

   Privilege elevation in Mobile in Google Chrome on on iOS prior to 157.0.8103.38 allowed a remote attacker to bypass system access restrictions into a privileged page via a crafted HTML page. (Chromium security severity: Medium)

8. 8.7CVE-2026-1214272026-11-03

   AzuraCast through 0.23.8 fails to remove frontend_config.custom_config in PUT /station/{id}/profile/edit for users lacking the Manage station broadcasting permission, and the stored JSON is written verbatim as key=value lines into the Shou…

The newest records naming one of them. Each weakness's page lists them all.

Related attack patterns

Part of

• CAPEC-233 Privilege Escalation

Can lead to

• CAPEC-8 Buffer Overflow in an API Call
• CAPEC-9 Buffer Overflow in Local Command-Line Utilities
• CAPEC-10 Buffer Overflow via Environment Variables
• CAPEC-67 String Format Overflow in syslog()

MITRE's words, unchanged: CAPEC-69 at MITRE. CAPEC is Copyright © 2007–2026, The MITRE Corporation, used under the CAPEC terms of use: “The MITRE Corporation (MITRE) hereby grants you a non-exclusive, royalty-free license to use Common Attack Pattern Enumeration and Classification (CAPEC™) for research, development, and commercial purposes. Any copy you make for such purposes is authorized provided that you reproduce MITRE’s copyright designation and this license in any such copy.” CAPEC and the CAPEC logo are trademarks of The MITRE Corporation. Credits. All attack patterns.