Common Weakness Enumeration

    CWE Definition / CWE-441

    CWE-441: Unintended Proxy or Intermediary ('Confused Deputy')

    The product receives a request, message, or directive from an upstream component, but the product does not sufficiently preserve the original source of the request before forwarding the request to an external actor that is outside of the product's control sphere. This causes the product to appear to be the source of the request, leading it to act as a proxy or other intermediary between the upstream component and the external actor.

    Published:19 Jul 2006
    Organization:MITRE
    Modified:11 Dec 2025

    Related Weakness

    CWE-610: Externally Controlled Reference to a Resource in Another Sphere

    CWE-668: Exposure of Resource to Wrong Sphere