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Common Weakness Enumeration

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Home > CWE List > CWE- Individual Dictionary Definition (4.17)  
ID

CWE CATEGORY: Configuration

Category ID: 16
Vulnerability Mapping: PROHIBITED This CWE ID must not be used to map to real-world vulnerabilities
+ Summary
Weaknesses in this category are typically introduced during the configuration of the software.
+ 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 CategoryCategory - a CWE entry that contains a set of other entries that share a common characteristic. 933 OWASP Top Ten 2013 Category A5 - Security Misconfiguration
MemberOf CategoryCategory - a CWE entry that contains a set of other entries that share a common characteristic. 1032 OWASP Top Ten 2017 Category A6 - Security Misconfiguration
MemberOf CategoryCategory - a CWE entry that contains a set of other entries that share a common characteristic. 1349 OWASP Top Ten 2021 Category A05:2021 - Security Misconfiguration
+ 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 entry 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). Mapping is also Prohibited because this entry's status is Obsolete.

Comments:

As of CWE 4.9, "Configuration" is beginning to be treated as an aspect of the SDLC in which a product is directed (by a human or automated process) to perform an insecure behavior. CWE mapping should be conducted by analyzing the weakness in the behavior that has been set by the configuration, such as those related to access control (descendants of CWE-284) or resource management (CWE-400), etc.
+ Notes

Maintenance

Further discussion about this category was held over the CWE Research mailing list in early 2020. No definitive action has been decided.

Maintenance

This entry is a Category, but various sources map to it anyway, despite CWE guidance that Categories should not be mapped. In this case, there are no clear CWE Weaknesses that can be utilized. "Inappropriate Configuration" sounds more like a Weakness in CWE's style, but it still does not indicate actual behavior of the product. Further research is still required, however, as a "configuration weakness" might be Primary to many other CWEs, i.e., it might be better described in terms of chaining relationships.
+ 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
2010-02-16 CWE Content Team MITRE
updated Taxonomy_Mappings
2013-07-17 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
2017-01-19 CWE Content Team MITRE
updated Maintenance_Notes, Relationships
2017-11-08 CWE Content Team MITRE
updated Detection_Factors
2018-03-27 CWE Content Team MITRE
updated Relationships
2019-06-20 CWE Content Team MITRE
updated Relationships
2020-02-24 CWE Content Team MITRE
updated Maintenance_Notes, Relationships
2021-10-28 CWE Content Team MITRE
updated Relationships
2022-10-13 CWE Content Team MITRE
updated Maintenance_Notes, References
2023-06-29 CWE Content Team MITRE
updated Mapping_Notes
Page Last Updated: April 03, 2025
 

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