Vulnerability Mapping:ALLOWEDThis CWE ID may be used to map to real-world vulnerabilities Abstraction:
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.
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Description
The product establishes an authenticated user session, but it does not properly set a timeout for the session. That is, the timeout is set to an excessively large value or is not set at all.
Technical Nuance
There are two types of session timeouts.
Inactivity Timeout: The time window that a session will be expired if there is no user interaction within the session.
Absolute Timeout: Regardless of activity, the total lifetime of a session before it is forcefully expired.
Common Consequences
This table specifies different individual consequences
associated with the weakness. The Scope identifies the application security area that is
violated, while the Impact describes the negative technical impact that arises if an
adversary succeeds in exploiting this weakness. The Likelihood provides information about
how likely the specific consequence is expected to be seen relative to the other
consequences in the list. For example, there may be high likelihood that a weakness will be
exploited to achieve a certain impact, but a low likelihood that it will be exploited to
achieve a different impact.
Impact
Details
Gain Privileges or Assume Identity
Scope: Access Control, Integrity
This weakness may improve the likely success of
certain attacks. For example, an attacker may intercept
a session ID, possibly via a network sniffer or
Cross-site Scripting attack. Although short session
expiration times do not help if a stolen token is
immediately used, they will protect against ongoing
replaying of the session ID.
In another scenario, a user might access a web site
from a shared computer (such as at a library,
Internet cafe, or open work environment), but forget
to close the pages before leaving. A long expiration
could allow an attacker to use the browser's back
button to access web pages previously accessed by
the victim.
Potential Mitigations
Phase(s)
Mitigation
Implementation
Ensure that user sessions have appropriate absolute timeouts set. The industry standard is between 4 and 8 hours for an absolute timeout [REF-1540].
Implementation
Ensure that user sessions have appropriate inactivity timeouts set. 2 to 5 minutes is recommended for high-value applications, and 15-30 minutes for low-risk applications [REF-1540].
Implementation
If using an authentication token for a user session, ensure that the token lifetime is configured based on the recommended best practices from the token provider [REF-1563]. There are situations using authentication tokens such as a JWT (Java Web Token) in which the server-side does not handle session timeouts and trusts the values directly from the token. In this case, it is important that the timeout value is set correctly for the token that is granted.
Relationships
This table shows the weaknesses and high level categories that are related to this
weakness. These relationships are defined as ChildOf, ParentOf, MemberOf and give insight to
similar items that may exist at higher and lower levels of abstraction. In addition,
relationships such as PeerOf, Overlaps, and CanAlsoBe are defined to show similar weaknesses that the user
may want to explore.
Relevant to the view "Complete Weakness Hierarchy" (View-1000)
Nature
Type
ID
Name
ChildOf
Class - a weakness that is described in a very abstract fashion, typically independent of any specific language or technology. More specific than a Pillar Weakness, but more general than a Base Weakness. Class level weaknesses typically describe issues in terms of 1 or 2 of the following dimensions: behavior, property, and resource.
The different Modes of Introduction provide information
about how and when this
weakness may be introduced. The Phase identifies a point in the life cycle at which
introduction
may occur, while the Note provides a typical scenario related to introduction during the
given
phase.
Phase(s)
Note
Implementation
Applicable Platforms
This listing shows possible areas for which the given
weakness could appear. These
may be for specific named Languages, Operating Systems, Architectures, Paradigms,
Technologies,
or a class of such platforms. The platform is listed along with how frequently the given
weakness appears for that instance.
Type
Applicable Platforms
Notes
Languages
Class: Not Language-Specific
(Undetermined Prevalence)
Operating Systems
Class: Not OS-Specific
(Undetermined Prevalence)
Architectures
Class: Not Architecture-Specific
(Undetermined Prevalence)
Technologies
Class: Client Server
(Undetermined Prevalence)
Class: Web Based
(Undetermined Prevalence)
Demonstrative Examples
Example 1
The following snippet was taken from a J2EE web.xml deployment descriptor in which the session-timeout parameter is explicitly defined (the default value depends on the container). In this case the value is set to -1, which means that a session will never expire.
(bad code)
Example Language: Java
<web-app>
[...snipped...]
<session-config>
<session-timeout>-1</session-timeout>
</session-config>
</web-app>
Selected Observed
Examples
Note: this is a curated list of examples for users to understand the variety of ways in which this
weakness can be introduced. It is not a complete list of all CVEs that are related to this CWE entry.
This MemberOf Relationships table shows additional CWE Categories and Views that
reference this weakness as a member. This information is often useful in understanding where a
weakness fits within the context of external information sources.
Nature
Type
ID
Name
MemberOf
Grouping - a CWE entry that contains a set of other entries that share a common characteristic.
(this CWE ID may be used to map to real-world vulnerabilities)
Reason
Acceptable-Use
Rationale
This CWE entry is at the Base level of abstraction, which is a preferred level of abstraction for mapping to the root causes of vulnerabilities.
Comments
Carefully read both the name and description to ensure that this mapping is an appropriate fit. Do not try to 'force' a mapping to a lower-level Base/Variant simply to comply with this preferred level of abstraction.
Do not map to this CWE in situations where the timeout value is set, but the session is incorrectly invalidated; use CWE-1464 instead.
Notes
Maintenance
Version: 5.0; Release Date: 2026-10-28
This entry was created in CWE 5.0 to address known gaps in CWE coverage. It is not as complete as other new entries that were published in recent years. The CWE Team plans to work with the CWE community to make this entry more complete in later 5.x releases.
Description
This table specifies different individual consequences
associated with the weakness. The Scope identifies the application security area that is
violated, while the Impact describes the negative technical impact that arises if an
adversary succeeds in exploiting this weakness. The Likelihood provides information about
how likely the specific consequence is expected to be seen relative to the other
consequences in the list. For example, there may be high likelihood that a weakness will be
exploited to achieve a certain impact, but a low likelihood that it will be exploited to
achieve a different impact.
