Broken Access Control has retained its position as the most critical application security risk in OWASP’s 2025 Top 10. This category reflects persistent threats affecting every layer of government and contractor application environments. Threat actors exploiting access control weaknesses can bypass authorization, escalate privileges, and gain unauthorized access to sensitive systems or data. For federal agencies entrusted with mission-critical assets, improper access management represents an unacceptable avenue for exploitation and mission disruption.
What is Broken Access Control?
Access control refers to policies and technical controls that ensure users act only within their authorized privileges. When these mechanisms fail, attackers may perform actions as unauthorized users, access restricted resources, or manipulate permissions for lateral movement. Broken access control is the leading cause of breaches due to its ubiquity, its complexity, and the tendency for misconfigurations across modern, distributed government systems.
Common Examples
- Gaining administrative privileges through forced browsing or parameter tampering
- Exploiting API endpoints without authorization checks
- Abusing weak session management to act as another user
- Manipulating access tokens, cookies, or JWTs to elevate privileges
Federal Impact and Compliance Focus
For federal organizations, failures in access control can undermine the principle of least privilege, cause FISMA/CISA/NIST non-compliance, and expose classified or sensitive information. The move toward Zero Trust architectures, continuous authorization, and role-based controls underscores the imperative to eliminate access weaknesses in both legacy and modernized federal systems.
Key Technical Weaknesses
CWE Reference | Example Flaws |
CWE-200 | Exposure of Sensitive Information to Unauthorized Actor |
CWE-352 | Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) |
CWE-918 | Server-Side Request Forgery (now merged here) |
CWE-284 | Improper Access Control |
CWE-285 | Improper Authorization |
CWE-639 | Authorization Bypass Through User-Controlled Key |
Visual: Simple Access Control Failure Scenario
Actor | Intended Action | Outcome with Broken Access Control |
Unauthenticated | Cannot reach /admin resource | Gains access due to missing check |
Standard User | Reads own profile | Can view other users’ profiles by changing ID |
Attacker | Sends forged API request | Is mistaken for admin due to weak token validation |
Practical Steps for Federal Environments
Deny by Default: Except for explicitly public resources, implement deny by default for all endpoints and APIs.
Access Auditing: Continuously monitor, log, and review privileged actions and access attempts.
Least Privilege: Enforce strict role-based or attribute-based access control aligned with federal frameworks.
Token Hardening: Protect, validate, and expire all session tokens and JWTs. Guard against replay and tampering.
Third-Party Integration Security: Ensure all external and partner APIs have consistent, enforced access controls.
Automated Testing: Use RavenTek’s vetted partners for automated security testing and code reviews focused on access enforcement.
Remediation Drill-Down: Conduct regular penetration tests simulating privilege escalation and bypass scenarios to uncover environmental weaknesses.
How RavenTek and Partners Help
RavenTek leverages a deep partner ecosystem specializing in access management, Zero Trust architecture, and application pentesting to deploy proactive, standards-driven defenses. Our solutions enable federal clients to automate policy enforcement, integrate granular auditing, and conduct continuous validation against real-world adversary tactics.
Align Your Access Control Posture
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