CWE - CWE-255: CWE CATEGORY: Credentials Management Errors (4.19.1)
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  • CWE CATEGORY: Credentials Management Errors

    Category ID: 255
    Vulnerability Mapping: PROHIBITED This CWE ID must not be used to map to real-world vulnerabilities
    + Summary
    Weaknesses in this category are related to the management of credentials.
    + Membership
    Nature Type ID Name
    MemberOf ViewView - a subset of CWE entries that provides a way of examining CWE content. The two main view structures are Slices (flat lists) and Graphs (containing relationships between entries). 635 Weaknesses Originally Used by NVD from 2008 to 2016
    MemberOf ViewView - a subset of CWE entries that provides a way of examining CWE content. The two main view structures are Slices (flat lists) and Graphs (containing relationships between entries). 699 Software Development
    MemberOf CategoryCategory - a CWE entry that contains a set of other entries that share a common characteristic. 724 OWASP Top Ten 2004 Category A3 - Broken Authentication and Session Management
    MemberOf CategoryCategory - a CWE entry that contains a set of other entries that share a common characteristic. 1353 OWASP Top Ten 2021 Category A07:2021 - Identification and Authentication Failures
    HasMember BaseBase - a weakness that is still mostly independent of a resource or technology, but with sufficient details to provide specific methods for detection and prevention. Base level weaknesses typically describe issues in terms of 2 or 3 of the following dimensions: behavior, property, technology, language, and resource. 256 Plaintext Storage of a Password
    HasMember BaseBase - a weakness that is still mostly independent of a resource or technology, but with sufficient details to provide specific methods for detection and prevention. Base level weaknesses typically describe issues in terms of 2 or 3 of the following dimensions: behavior, property, technology, language, and resource. 257 Storing Passwords in a Recoverable Format
    HasMember BaseBase - a weakness that is still mostly independent of a resource or technology, but with sufficient details to provide specific methods for detection and prevention. Base level weaknesses typically describe issues in terms of 2 or 3 of the following dimensions: behavior, property, technology, language, and resource. 260 Password in Configuration File
    HasMember BaseBase - a weakness that is still mostly independent of a resource or technology, but with sufficient details to provide specific methods for detection and prevention. Base level weaknesses typically describe issues in terms of 2 or 3 of the following dimensions: behavior, property, technology, language, and resource. 261 Weak Encoding for Password
    HasMember BaseBase - a weakness that is still mostly independent of a resource or technology, but with sufficient details to provide specific methods for detection and prevention. Base level weaknesses typically describe issues in terms of 2 or 3 of the following dimensions: behavior, property, technology, language, and resource. 262 Not Using Password Aging
    HasMember BaseBase - a weakness that is still mostly independent of a resource or technology, but with sufficient details to provide specific methods for detection and prevention. Base level weaknesses typically describe issues in terms of 2 or 3 of the following dimensions: behavior, property, technology, language, and resource. 263 Password Aging with Long Expiration
    HasMember BaseBase - a weakness that is still mostly independent of a resource or technology, but with sufficient details to provide specific methods for detection and prevention. Base level weaknesses typically describe issues in terms of 2 or 3 of the following dimensions: behavior, property, technology, language, and resource. 324 Use of a Key Past its Expiration Date
    HasMember BaseBase - a weakness that is still mostly independent of a resource or technology, but with sufficient details to provide specific methods for detection and prevention. Base level weaknesses typically describe issues in terms of 2 or 3 of the following dimensions: behavior, property, technology, language, and resource. 521 Weak Password Requirements
    HasMember BaseBase - a weakness that is still mostly independent of a resource or technology, but with sufficient details to provide specific methods for detection and prevention. Base level weaknesses typically describe issues in terms of 2 or 3 of the following dimensions: behavior, property, technology, language, and resource. 523 Unprotected Transport of Credentials
    HasMember BaseBase - a weakness that is still mostly independent of a resource or technology, but with sufficient details to provide specific methods for detection and prevention. Base level weaknesses typically describe issues in terms of 2 or 3 of the following dimensions: behavior, property, technology, language, and resource. 549 Missing Password Field Masking
    HasMember BaseBase - a weakness that is still mostly independent of a resource or technology, but with sufficient details to provide specific methods for detection and prevention. Base level weaknesses typically describe issues in terms of 2 or 3 of the following dimensions: behavior, property, technology, language, and resource. 620 Unverified Password Change
    HasMember BaseBase - a weakness that is still mostly independent of a resource or technology, but with sufficient details to provide specific methods for detection and prevention. Base level weaknesses typically describe issues in terms of 2 or 3 of the following dimensions: behavior, property, technology, language, and resource. 640 Weak Password Recovery Mechanism for Forgotten Password
    HasMember BaseBase - a weakness that is still mostly independent of a resource or technology, but with sufficient details to provide specific methods for detection and prevention. Base level weaknesses typically describe issues in terms of 2 or 3 of the following dimensions: behavior, property, technology, language, and resource. 798 Use of Hard-coded Credentials
    HasMember BaseBase - a weakness that is still mostly independent of a resource or technology, but with sufficient details to provide specific methods for detection and prevention. Base level weaknesses typically describe issues in terms of 2 or 3 of the following dimensions: behavior, property, technology, language, and resource. 916 Use of Password Hash With Insufficient Computational Effort
    HasMember BaseBase - a weakness that is still mostly independent of a resource or technology, but with sufficient details to provide specific methods for detection and prevention. Base level weaknesses typically describe issues in terms of 2 or 3 of the following dimensions: behavior, property, technology, language, and resource. 1392 Use of Default Credentials
    + Vulnerability Mapping Notes

    Usage: PROHIBITED

    (this CWE ID must not be used to map to real-world vulnerabilities)

    Reason: Category

    Rationale:

    This entry is a Category. Using categories for mapping has been discouraged since 2019. Categories are informal organizational groupings of weaknesses that can help CWE users with data aggregation, navigation, and browsing. However, they are not weaknesses in themselves [REF-1287]. This CWE ID may have become widely-used because of NIST's usage in NVD from 2008 to 2016 (see CWE-635 view, updated to the CWE-1003 view in 2016).

    Comments:

    Some weakness-oriented alternatives might be found under Improper Authentication (CWE-287) or keyword searches for credentials.
    + References
    [REF-1287] MITRE. "Supplemental Details - 2022 CWE Top 25". Details of Problematic Mappings. 2022-06-28. <https://cwe.mitre.org/top25/archive/2022/2022_cwe_top25_supplemental.html#problematicMappingDetails>. URL validated: 2024-11-17.
    + Content History
    + Submissions
    Submission Date Submitter Organization
    2006-07-19
    (CWE Draft 3, 2006-07-19)
    CWE Community
    Submitted by members of the CWE community to extend early CWE versions
    + Modifications
    Modification Date Modifier Organization
    2008-09-08 CWE Content Team MITRE
    updated Relationships, Taxonomy_Mappings
    2010-02-16 CWE Content Team MITRE
    updated Relationships
    2014-07-30 CWE Content Team MITRE
    updated Detection_Factors
    2015-12-07 CWE Content Team MITRE
    updated Relationships
    2017-11-08 CWE Content Team MITRE
    updated Applicable_Platforms, Detection_Factors
    2019-06-20 CWE Content Team MITRE
    updated Relationships
    2020-02-24 CWE Content Team MITRE
    updated Name, Relationships
    2021-10-28 CWE Content Team MITRE
    updated Relationships
    2022-10-13 CWE Content Team MITRE
    updated References
    2023-04-27 CWE Content Team MITRE
    updated Relationships
    2023-06-29 CWE Content Team MITRE
    updated Mapping_Notes
    + Previous Entry Names
    Change Date Previous Entry Name
    2020-02-24 Credentials Management
    Page Last Updated: January 21, 2026