When protecting your digital infrastructure from threats, it’s critical to become familiar with security standards like CWE, CVE, and CVSS. These terms were developed and are maintained by MITRE, a nonprofit organization that operates research and development (R&D) centers sponsored by the U.S. government. We’ll talk about CWE, CVE, and CVSS in detail below.
Table of Contents
- What is CWE?
- What is CVE?
- What is CVSS?
- Comparing CWE vs. CVE vs. CVSS
- What Are Other Vulnerability Assessment Frameworks?
- Organizations behind CWE, CVE, and CVSS
- Reducing the Risk of Breaches with CVE, CWE, and CVSS
What Is CWE?
CWE stands for “Common Weakness Enumeration,” a community-developed list of common software vulnerabilities that have become a standard means to describe and categorize weaknesses that could lead to vulnerabilities. These vulnerabilities can include system misconfigurations and code errors that haven’t been exploited in the wild yet.
Why Is CWE Important?
CWE makes identifying and addressing software vulnerabilities, design flaws, programming errors, and configuration issues easier and quicker. Each weakness in the CWE list is assigned a unique identifier comprising 3–4 digits and contains detailed descriptions, examples, and guidance on mitigating or avoiding the weakness.
What Are Examples of CWEs?
Below are some examples of CWE that are relevant to Internet-facing systems that could potentially expand your external attack surface.
- CWE-200: Information Exposure: This weakness occurs when personal information, system data, network configurations, and other sensitive information are inadvertently exposed or disclosed in error messages, logs, or other system outputs, providing potential attackers valuable information that they can use to exploit the system.
- CWE-326: Inadequate Encryption Strength: CWE-326 pertains to weak encryption algorithms or insufficient key lengths in external-facing resources that can lead to sensitive data exposure.
- CWE-346: Origin Validation Error: This flaw can occur when the source or destination of network traffic is improperly validated. CWE-346 may lead to spoofing attacks where attackers forge the origin of their incoming requests.
- CWE-434: Unrestricted Upload of File with Dangerous Type: This vulnerability occurs when an application allows users to upload files without proper validation, leading to the execution of malicious code, file overwriting, or other security vulnerabilities.
- CWE-601: URL Redirection to Untrusted Site (“Open Redirect”): This weakness arises when an application redirects users to a different website or URL without validating the target, potentially leading to phishing attacks, malware downloads, or other malicious activities.
The ones we mentioned above are just a few examples. As of January 2025, 940 total weaknesses appear on the list maintained by MITRE found here.
What Is CVE?
CVE, short for “Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures,” is also a standardized system for identifying and tracking publicly known vulnerabilities. However, unlike CWEs that focus on the vulnerability or flaw at a higher level, CVEs look at the vulnerability in the context of a specific product or system.
Each CVE has a unique CVE ID comprising eight or more digits following the syntax CVE-YYYY-NNNN where “YYYY” indicates the year and “NNNN” are arbitrary digits.
Why Is CVE Important?
CVE serves as a common reference for vulnerabilities at the level of a specific system, platform, or technology, making it easier for security professionals, researchers, and organizations to collaborate and share much-needed information.
What Are Examples of CVEs?
Here are a few examples of CVEs.
- CVE-2021-34523: This vulnerability in Microsoft Exchange Server could be used to gain access to the victim’s SSL/TLS keys, allowing attackers to secretly intercept and change encrypted data during transmission.
- CVE-2020-1350: Known as “SIGRed,” this CVE affects Windows DNS servers. It allows attackers to remotely run their code on a server, potentially compromising the reliability and security of the DNS service.
- CVE-2018-6789: This flaw affects Exim mail servers, hence it’s known as the “Exim Mail Server Vulnerability.” It enables remote attackers to execute commands on a server, potentially gaining unauthorized access or executing malicious actions.
- CVE-2017-5638: This vulnerability affects Apache Struts, a widely used web application framework. It allows threat actors to run code on a server by exploiting a specific type of HTTP header, potentially leading to a complete server takeover.
In 2024, 40,077 CVEs were published, bringing the total number to more than 240,000. The list continues to grow as new vulnerabilities get detected and added. You can access CVE records on the site above maintained by MITRE.
What Is CVSS and Why Is It Important?
The Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) is a standardized framework to assess the severity and impact of cybersecurity vulnerabilities. It works by assigning numerical scores to vulnerabilities based on metrics, such as impact on an affected system’s availability and integrity and ease with which attackers can exploit a vulnerability.
CVSS scores range from 0 to 10, with 10 being the most severe. This framework benefits the cybersecurity community and security teams by:
- Enabling them to prioritize responses to vulnerabilities
- Making vulnerability assessments objective and consistent
- Allowing for effective communication and collaboration among different stakeholders
CWE vs. CVE vs. CVSS: A Comparison
When comparing CWE, CVE, and CVSS, it’s important to note that while they are instrumental in vulnerability management and may seem similar, each has varying purposes and focuses. The table below shows some of the main differences between CWE, CVS, and CVSS.
| Common Weakness Enumeration (CWE) | Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) | Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) | |
| Purpose | To provide a standardized way to identify and classify weaknesses | To track and represent vulnerabilities at the product or system level | To have a standard method in vulnerability scoring for prioritization support |
| Focus | Identification of weaknesses that could lead to vulnerabilities | Discovery of vulnerabilities that have been publicly disclosed | Quantification of each vulnerability’s severity based on exploitability and impact |
| Representation | ID with 3-4 digits (e.g., CWE-200) | ID with 8 or more digits (e.g., CVE-2024-53704) | Score range between 0 and 10 |
| Responsible organization | MITRE Corporation | MITRE Corporation | Forum of Incident Response and Security Teams (FIRST) |
What Are Other Vulnerability Assessment Frameworks?
CVSS is a widely used standard, but other vulnerability management frameworks with different perspectives and methodologies exist. The Exploit Prediction Scoring System (EPSS) and the Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) Catalog are some examples.
EPSS
EPSS is a scoring system that predicts the likelihood of a vulnerability being exploited. It considers factors like the ease of exploitation and availability of exploit code. Unlike CVSS, which primarily focuses on the inherent characteristics of the vulnerability, EPSS is more dynamic and reflects real-world data.
KEV Catalog
Meanwhile, the KEV Catalog lists vulnerabilities actively exploited in the wild. It is maintained by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and provides organizations with a prioritized list of vulnerabilities that pose the most immediate threat.
Although EPSS and the CISA KEV Catalog can be alternatives to CVSS, external attack surface alternatives can be more efficient when these frameworks are used in conjunction.
Organizations behind CWE, CVE, and CVSS
CWE and CVE were designed and maintained by MITRE Corporation, a nonprofit organization that operates federally funded R&D centers (FFRDCs). Essentially, these centers work for the U.S. government on various projects related to national security, public health, and other areas of public interest.
MITRE is well-known for its contributions to cybersecurity. Not only is it responsible for CWE and CVE, but it also developed the ATT&CK Framework, a repository of known adversary tactics and techniques that helps cybersecurity professionals understand how attackers work.
On the other hand, CVSS was originally developed by the National Infrastructure Advisory Council (NIAC) but is now maintained by the Forum of Incident Response and Security Teams (FIRST).
NIAC is a U.S. government advisory council to the President, while FIRST is a global nonprofit organization that serves as a collaborative network of cybersecurity experts on incident response.
How Do CWE, CVE, and CVSS Relate to the NVD?
The National Vulnerability Database (NVD) is a cybersecurity resource maintained by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) that leverages CWE, CVE, and CVSS.
It is built upon the CVE list and links entries to related CWEs to provide more information about the underlying weaknesses that caused the vulnerabilities. NVD essentially discloses the root cause of a CVE.
The NVD also assigns CVSS scores to the CVEs, helping security teams prioritize vulnerabilities based on severity.
Reducing the Risk of Breaches Associated with CVE, CWE, and CVSS
Organizations can significantly reduce their breach risk by implementing best practices that leverage CVE, CWE, and CVSS. Below are a few examples.
Maintain a CVE-Contextualized Asset Inventory
Maintain a comprehensive and up-to-date inventory of all hardware, software, and cloud assets. The catalog should also include CVEs for assets running on vulnerable software versions. This practice allows security teams to identify which assets are affected by critical CVEs so proper patches and remediation efforts can be applied immediately.
Integrate CVE and CWE into the SSDLC
More software manufacturers are dedicated to releasing secure products, with hundreds of companies signing the Secure by Design pledge, a set of principles that emphasizes building security into products from the very beginning.
One way to conform to these principles is to train developers on secure coding practices to prevent common weaknesses (CWEs) from being introduced into the code. It’s also essential to integrate static and dynamic application security testing (SAST and DAST) tools into the Secure Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) to automatically identify CWEs and CVEs before launching a product.
Incorporate CVSS into Risk Prioritization
CVSS is a good starting point for prioritizing security issues as it takes into account several metrics, including exploitability and impact. These measures become more crucial when integrated into other risk factors, such as the criticality of affected assets and their likelihood of exploitation in your business context.
For instance, a vulnerability with a high CVSS score that affects a noncritical system may pose less risk than a lower-scoring vulnerability affecting a critical asset.
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They may differ, but CWE, CVE, and CVSS all contribute to better vulnerability management, secure coding practices, risk prioritization, and information sharing, ultimately helping to enhance the overall security posture of software and systems and supporting the collective effort of the cybersecurity community.
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