Cyber Resilience

CWE · MITRE source

CWE-260Password in Configuration File

Abstraction: Base · CVEs in our corpus: 24

The product stores a password in a configuration file that might be accessible to actors who do not know the password.

This can result in compromise of the system for which the password is used. An attacker could gain access to this file and learn the stored password or worse yet, change the password to one of their choosing.

Last updated: 20 August 2026 13:14 UTC

Cumulative inbound coverage

How completely the frameworks we cross-walk collectively cover this — the verdict is the strongest single mapping (overlapping partials are not summed); breadth shows the corroboration behind it.

Collective: partial · 1 mapping(s) from 1 framework(s): STIG rhel 7 1 (partial)

See the full cumulative-coverage rollup →

OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)

This weakness contributes to A02:2025 Security Misconfiguration.

Control responseHuman-reviewed

Answering this weakness across the control lifecycle, from our framework cross-walks.

Prevent
Stop it (NIST 800-53 / CSF Protect)
  • PR.DS-01
  • PR.PS-01
  • IA-5 Authenticator Management
  • PR.AA-05
Detect
Catch it (CSF Detect / Respond)

—

Harden
Shrink the surface (DISA STIG)
  • 1 hardening rule · 1 OS baseline
Validate
Prove the fix (OWASP ASVS)

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NIST 800-53 r5 controls that address this weakness (0)AI-assisted

Control Title Family Why it addresses this CWE
No NIST controls proposed yet.

Top CVEs of this weakness type, ranked by Risk Priority

CVE Risk CVSS EPSS Published
CVE-2017-7925 9.49.80.51422017-05-06
CVE-2023-34128 7.49.80.00712023-07-13
CVE-2025-57754 7.29.80.00362025-08-21
CVE-2017-7923 7.08.80.02332017-05-06
CVE-2019-3780 6.88.80.01432019-03-08
CVE-2025-25022 6.69.60.00302025-06-03
CVE-2025-6513 6.39.30.00152025-06-23
CVE-2025-32111 6.18.70.00382025-04-04
CVE-2023-53770 5.97.50.00532025-12-09
CVE-2019-25465 5.97.50.00502026-03-11
CVE-2021-35033 5.87.80.00402021-11-23
CVE-2025-33093 5.87.50.00352025-05-07
CVE-2016-7043 5.05.90.01532019-05-15
CVE-2025-33119 5.06.50.00242025-11-12
CVE-2020-5721 4.45.50.00382020-04-15
CVE-2025-51540 4.35.30.00242025-08-19
CVE-2014-5400 4.10.00.00332015-04-03
CVE-2024-45673 4.15.50.00132025-02-21
CVE-2025-36002 4.15.50.00142025-10-16
CVE-2025-36100 3.85.10.00102025-09-07
CVE-2024-49817 3.54.40.00192024-12-17
CVE-2025-15151 3.23.70.00292025-12-28
CVE-2023-2790 2.22.30.00282023-05-18