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Home > CWE List > CWE-1472: Generation of Credential with Long Expiration (5.0)  
ID

CWE-1472: Generation of Credential with Long Expiration

Weakness ID: 1472
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 generates or relies on a credential such as a key, certificate, password, confirmation code, or token, but the credential does not expire or has an expiration that is too long, i.e., the expiration is insufficient for the intended security policy of the product.
+ 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; Varies by Context

Scope: Access Control, Confidentiality, Integrity

The consequences vary depending on how the credential is intended for use within the product. At the least, a long expiration date gives an attacker more time to steal or guess the credential, and if compromised, the attacker would have more time than desired in order to conduct malicious activities.

+ Potential Mitigations
Phase(s) Mitigation

Implementation; Operation

For each credential that is created, reset, or used, ensure that the expiration is set to be as short as possible while preserving usability.

Architecture and Design

Design the product to analyze the credentials that it manages, and provide mechanisms to provide secure defaults, and/or a capability to warn users about excessive expiration.

+ 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
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. 664 Improper Control of a Resource Through its Lifetime
ParentOf 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. 262 Not Using Password Aging
ParentOf 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. 263 Password Aging with Long Expiration
+ 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

System Configuration

Operation

+ 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
Video encoder web interface issues authentication tokens with an expiration time that is longer than the expected session lifetime.
Chain: Learning management system generates tokens without an expiration (CWE-1472), making its password reset mechanism weak (CWE-640).
firmware camera system creates an authentication token with insufficient expiration.
Package manager for Erlang uses password reset tokens that do not expire.
Wordpress plugin generates a One-Time Password (OTP) without an expiration (CWE-1472) and does not perform rate-limiting (CWE-307), allowing attackers to compromise accounts via a brute force attack.
+ Detection Methods
Method Details

Automated Dynamic Analysis

If the credentials are provided through a communications protocol, monitor the communications related to credential generation and examine any expiration dates or times that are set.

Manual Analysis

Examine the code to determine where credentials are created or updated, and determine how any expiration dates or times are set.

+ 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.
+ References
[REF-1564] Google. "Antipattern: Set a long expiration time for OAuth tokens".
<https://docs.cloud.google.com/apigee/docs/api-platform/antipatterns/oauth-long-expiration>. (URL validated: 2026-10-23)
[REF-1578] NIST. "NIST IR 8587: Protecting Tokens and Assertions from Forgery, Theft, and Misuse". 2026-09.
<https://doi.org/10.6028/NIST.IR.8587>. (URL validated: 2026-10-26)
+ 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