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critical Access Control SWC-105 CWE-269

Privilege Escalation via Role Misconfiguration

SAFE-0010 Access Control Checked automatically by the scanner
1

What goes wrong

Role assignment or admin-role wiring lets a lower-privilege account grant itself or others a higher role, or the DEFAULT_ADMIN_ROLE manages a role it should not, enabling escalation.

2

How to fix it

the pattern that is safe
function grantMinter(address a) external onlyRole(DEFAULT_ADMIN_ROLE) {
    _grantRole(MINTER_ROLE, a);
}
◆
Use AccessControl with carefully set role admins.
3

Where this has happened

Largest recorded losses in the same failure class — related, not the same bug:

$1.43B · 2025 Bybit Access control · 2025 $624M · 2022 Ronin Network Access control · 2022 $611M · 2021 Poly Network Access control · 2021 $291M · 2026 KelpDAO rsETH Access control · 2026
4

Related vulnerabilities in Access Control

SAFE-0006Missing Access Control on Privileged Function critical · Access Control SAFE-0008Unprotected Initializer / Initialization critical · Access Control SAFE-0015Backdoor / Hidden Privileged Function critical · Access Control SAFE-0116Unprotected selfdestruct critical · Access Control SAFE-0007tx.origin Used for Authentication high · Access Control SAFE-0009Missing Initializer Disable on Implementation high · Access Control SAFE-0013Authorization Through msg.data / Signature Confusion high · Access Control SAFE-0225Rescue/Sweep Function Can Take User Funds high · Access Control
← PreviousMissing Initializer Disable on Implementation
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