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.
Variant - a weakness
that is linked to a certain type of product, typically involving a specific language or technology. More specific than a Base weakness. Variant level weaknesses typically describe issues in terms of 3 to 5 of the following dimensions: behavior, property, technology, language, and resource.
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.
Use for Mapping: Prohibited (this CWE ID must not be used to map to real-world vulnerabilities).
Rationale: this entry is a Category. Using categories for mapping has been an actively discouraged practice since at least 2019. Categories are informal organizational groupings of weaknesses that help navigation and browsing by CWE users, but they are not weaknesses in themselves.
Comments: See member weaknesses of this category.
Content History
Submissions
Submission Date
Submitter
Organization
2014-07-29
CWE Content Team
MITRE
Modifications
Modification Date
Modifier
Organization
2020-02-24
CWE Content Team
MITRE
updated Relationships
2023-04-27
CWE Content Team
MITRE
updated Mapping_Notes
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Summary
