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Home > CWE List > CWE-1469: Improper Check for Credential Expiration (5.0)  
ID

CWE-1469: Improper Check for Credential Expiration

Weakness ID: 1469
Vulnerability Mapping: ALLOWED This CWE ID may be used to map to real-world vulnerabilities
Abstraction: Base Base - 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 receives a request that includes a credential such as a key, certificate, password, confirmation code, or token, but the product does not check whether the credential is expired.
+ Common Consequences
Section HelpThis 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; Bypass Protection Mechanism

Scope: Access Control, Confidentiality, Integrity

The consequences vary depending on how the credential is intended for use within the product. If an attacker steals or guesses the expired credential, then the attacker would have more time than desired in order to conduct malicious activities.

+ Potential Mitigations
Phase(s) Mitigation

Implementation

When receiving a credential, look up its expiration to ensure that the credential is still active. If the incoming credential states its own expiration, do not trust this value as it may be part of untrusted input.

Architecture and Design

Ensure that, for any flow that generates or resets credentials, the expiration is clearly recorded for the credential. Also, ensure that mechanisms exist (such as error handling) for implementations to easily check for expiration, or build in the expiration check as part of the design.

+ Relationships
Section Help 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 Pillar Pillar - a weakness that is the most abstract type of weakness and represents a theme for all class/base/variant weaknesses related to it. A Pillar is different from a Category as a Pillar is still technically a type of weakness that describes a mistake, while a Category represents a common characteristic used to group related things. 284 Improper Access Control
CanPrecede Class 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. 672 Operation on a Resource after Expiration or Release
+ Modes Of Introduction
Section HelpThe 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

Developers might check that the credential exists and is known, without checking if it is expired.

+ Applicable Platforms
Section HelpThis 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)

Architectures

Class: Not Architecture-Specific (Undetermined Prevalence)

Technologies

Class: Not Technology-Specific (Undetermined Prevalence)

+ 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.

Reference Description
Data-sharing product does not check token properties including expiry, allowing attackers to bypass the expiration check.
Product does not ensure that a pending invitation is processed before the specified expiry period.
Chain: product compares an array to a scalar value (CWE-1024), effectively bypassing an expiry check for a token (CWE-xxxx).
Product checks expiry for integer values, but not for floats.
+ Memberships
Section HelpThis 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 GroupingGrouping - a CWE entry that contains a set of other entries that share a common characteristic. 1396 Comprehensive Categorization: Access Control
+ Vulnerability Mapping Notes
Usage ALLOWED
(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.
+ Content History
+ Submissions
Submission Date Submitter Organization
2026-10-26
(CWE 5.0, 2026-10-28)
CWE Content Team MITRE
Page Last Updated: Oct 28, 2026