ASP.NET Misconfiguration: Use of Identity Impersonation

Configuring an ASP.NET application to run with impersonated credentials may give the application unnecessary privileges.

Abstraction

Variant

Structure

Simple

Likelihood of Exploit

Medium

Understand the problem

What is the problem?

Configuring an ASP.NET application to run with impersonated credentials may give the application unnecessary privileges.

Root cause

How and when does the problem arise?

Lifecycle phase

Implementation

Lifecycle phase

Operation

The use of impersonated credentials allows an ASP.NET application to run with either the privileges of the client on whose behalf it is executing or with arbitrary privileges granted in its configuration.

Risk

What does successful exploitation lead to?

Gain Privileges or Assume Identity

Affected security scopes: Access Control

Defence

How is it prevented and fixed?

Architecture and Design

Architecture and design approach

Detail

Use the least privilege principle.

Verification

How is it detected?

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.)