Common Weakness Enumeration

CWE-766

Weakness Allowed

Critical Data Element Declared Public

Abstraction: Base · Status: Incomplete

API response cwe.mitre.org

The product declares a critical variable, field, or member to be public when intended security policy requires it to be private.

Mapping guidance

This CWE entry is at the Base level of abstraction, which is a preferred level of abstraction for mapping to the root causes of vulnerabilities.

Carefully read both the name and description to ensure that this mapping is an appropriate fit. Do not try to 'force' a mapping to a lower-level Base/Variant simply to comply with this preferred level of abstraction.

Relationships and members
ChildOf: CWE-732 · View CWE-1000
ChildOf: CWE-1061 · View CWE-1000
Modes of introduction
Implementation
Detection methods

Automated Static Analysis

Automated static analysis, commonly referred to as Static Application Security Testing (SAST), can find some instances of this weakness by analyzing source code (or binary/compiled code) without having to execute it. Typically, this is done by building a model of data flow and control flow, then searching for potentially-vulnerable patterns that connect "sources" (origins of input) with "sinks" (destinations where the data interacts with external components, a lower layer such as the OS, etc.)

Effectiveness: High

Content history
Submission: CWE Content Team · MITRE · 2009-03-03 · CWE 1.4
Modification: CWE Content Team · MITRE · 2009-12-28 · CWE 1.7

updated Demonstrative_Examples

Modification: CWE Content Team · MITRE · 2010-12-13 · CWE 1.11

updated Observed_Examples

Modification: CWE Content Team · MITRE · 2011-06-01 · CWE 1.13

updated Common_Consequences, Relationships, Taxonomy_Mappings

Modification: CWE Content Team · MITRE · 2012-05-11 · CWE 2.2

updated Relationships

Modification: CWE Content Team · MITRE · 2014-07-30 · CWE 2.8

updated Relationships, Taxonomy_Mappings

Modification: CWE Content Team · MITRE · 2017-11-08 · CWE 3.0

updated Likelihood_of_Exploit, Relationships

Modification: CWE Content Team · MITRE · 2019-01-03 · CWE 3.2

updated Common_Consequences, Description, Name, References, Relationships, Taxonomy_Mappings, Weakness_Ordinalities

Modification: CWE Content Team · MITRE · 2020-02-24 · CWE 4.0

updated Relationships

Modification: CWE Content Team · MITRE · 2023-01-31 · CWE 4.10

updated Description

Modification: CWE Content Team · MITRE · 2023-04-27 · CWE 4.11

updated Detection_Factors, References, Relationships, Time_of_Introduction, Type

Modification: CWE Content Team · MITRE · 2023-06-29 · CWE 4.12

updated Mapping_Notes, Relationships

Modification: CWE Content Team · MITRE · 2023-10-26 · CWE 4.13

updated Observed_Examples

Modification: CWE Content Team · MITRE · 2024-02-29 · CWE 4.14

updated Demonstrative_Examples

Modification: CWE Content Team · MITRE · 2026-10-28 · CWE 5.0

updated Common_Consequences, Description

0 vulnerabilities reference this CWE, most recent first.

No vulnerabilities reference this CWE.

Mitigation
Implementation

Data should be private, static, and final whenever possible. This will assure that your code is protected by instantiating early, preventing access, and preventing tampering.

No CAPEC attack patterns related to this CWE.

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