CWE-693: Protection Mechanism Failure
The product does not use or incorrectly uses a protection mechanism that provides sufficient defense against directed attacks against the product.
How it's found
Protection Mechanism Failure is a broad weakness category rather than one exact bug. Testers narrow it down through manual code review and architecture review to identify which of its more specific child weaknesses actually appears in a given target, then confirm each one individually.
This weakness covers three distinct situations. A "missing" protection mechanism occurs when the application does not define any mechanism against a certain class of attack. An "insufficient" protection mechanism might provide some defenses - for example, against the most common attacks - but it does not protect against everything that is intended. Finally, an "ignored" mechanism occurs when a mechanism is available and in active use within the product, but the developer has not applied it in some code path.
Consequences
- Bypass Protection Mechanism
How TurboPentest tests for this
TurboPentest's automated black-box pentest actively probes for Protection Mechanism Failure using OWASP ZAP, which flags missing security headers (Content-Security-Policy, X-Content-Type-Options, and related response headers) on the live target, with no source code required. Connecting a GitHub repo adds white-box confirmation from IntegSec's Opengrep SAST rule pack, which carries 3 dedicated rules for this weakness.
Tools: OWASP ZAP
Frequently asked questions
What is CWE-693?
The product does not use or incorrectly uses a protection mechanism that provides sufficient defense against directed attacks against the product.
How do you find Protection Mechanism Failure?
Protection Mechanism Failure is a broad weakness category rather than one exact bug. Testers narrow it down through manual code review and architecture review to identify which of its more specific child weaknesses actually appears in a given target, then confirm each one individually.
What is the impact of CWE-693?
Bypass Protection Mechanism
Does TurboPentest test for Protection Mechanism Failure?
TurboPentest's automated black-box pentest actively probes for Protection Mechanism Failure using OWASP ZAP, which flags missing security headers (Content-Security-Policy, X-Content-Type-Options, and related response headers) on the live target, with no source code required. Connecting a GitHub repo adds white-box confirmation from IntegSec's Opengrep SAST rule pack, which carries 3 dedicated rules for this weakness.
Written and reviewed by
Michel Chamberland - Founder & CEO, IntegSec
CISSP, OSCP, OSCE, CEH, GIAC, CCSK · 20+ years in offensive security
Michel has spent 20+ years on offensive security teams including IBM X-Force Red and Trustwave SpiderLabs, leading penetration tests, red team engagements, and breach response for Fortune 500 customers. He is the founder of IntegSec and the architect of TurboPentest.
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