Weakness · High
CWE-522: Insufficiently Protected Credentials
What it is
The product transmits or stores authentication credentials, but it uses an insecure method that is susceptible to unauthorized interception and/or retrieval.
- Severity (our rating)
- High
- Likelihood of exploit
- Not rated by MITRE
- Introduced during
- Architecture and Design, Implementation
- Exploited in the wild
- 4 known exploited CVEs
What an attacker can do
- Gain Privileges or Assume Identity (Access Control)
How to prevent it
Architecture and Design
- Use an appropriate security mechanism to protect the credentials.
- Make appropriate use of cryptography to protect the credentials.
Implementation
- Use industry standards to protect the credentials (e.g. LDAP, keystore, etc.).
How to find it
- Automated Static Analysis. Automated static analysis, commonly referred to as Static Application Security Testing (SAST), can find some instances of this weakness by analyzing source code (or binary/compiled code) without having to execute it. Typically, this is done by building a model of data flow and control flow, then searching for potentially-vulnerable patterns that connect "sources" (origins of input) with "sinks" (destinations where the data interacts with external components, a lower layer such as the OS, etc.)
Exploited in the wild: 4 CVEs
Vulnerabilities caused by CWE-522 that attackers have used, from CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog, newest first.
- CVE-2021-22681Rockwell Multiple Products Insufficient Protected Credentials Vulnerability · added March 5, 2026
- CVE-2021-30116 ransomwareKaseya Virtual System/Server Administrator (VSA) Information Disclosure Vulnerability · added November 3, 2021
- CVE-2020-29583Zyxel Multiple Products Use of Hard-Coded Credentials Vulnerability · added November 3, 2021
- CVE-2017-9248Progress Telerik UI for ASP.NET AJAX and Sitefinity Cryptographic Weakness Vulnerability · added November 3, 2021
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Start freeSource: MITRE Common Weakness Enumeration, CWE version 4.19.1. CWE is a trademark of The MITRE Corporation.