What is CWE-261?
Obscuring a password with a trivial encoding does not protect the password.
Analyzing data...
CWE-261: Weak Encoding for Password
Data statistics
OWASP TOP 10:2025 RANK4 — A04:2025 — Cryptographic Failures
RELATED CVES (365 DAYS)4
ABSTRACTIONBase
Vulnerabilities mapped to CWE-261
4 vulnerabilities
Vulnerabilities in CISA KEV for CWE-261
0 vulnerabilities
Obscuring a password with a trivial encoding does not protect the password.
Password management issues occur when a password is stored in plaintext in an application's properties or configuration file. A programmer can attempt to remedy the password management problem by obscuring the password with an encoding function, such as base 64 encoding, but this effort does not adequately protect the password.
Characteristics
Modes of introduction
- Architecture and Design: COMMISSION: This weakness refers to an incorrect design related to an architectural security tactic.
Common consequences
| Impact | Scope | Explanation |
|---|---|---|
| Gain Privileges or Assume Identity | Access Control | — |
Risk mitigations
- Passwords should be encrypted with keys that are at least 128 bits in length for adequate security.
Detection methods
| Method | Approach | Effectiveness |
|---|---|---|
| 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.) | High |
Representative vulnerabilities
Below are representative vulnerabilities related to this CWE, prioritized by severity.
Sources (3)
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