CWE · MITRE source
CWE-261Weak Encoding for Password
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.
Last updated: 04 July 2026 13:15 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: mostly · 6 mapping(s) from 2 framework(s): ATT&CK 4 (mostly) · OWASP-Web 2 (mostly)
OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)
This weakness contributes to A04:2025 Cryptographic Failures.
NIST 800-53 r5 controls that address this weakness (0)AI
| Control | Title | Family | Why it addresses this CWE |
|---|---|---|---|
| No NIST controls proposed yet. | |||
MITRE ATT&CK techniques this weakness enables
Our own two-way CWE↔ATT&CK cross-walk — a direct mapping with no public source (the CWE→CAPEC→ATT&CK chain leaves most top weaknesses, incl. XSS and SQLi, mapped to nothing). Drafted by Grok and spot-checked by Claude Opus 4.8.
Direction: ← other covers this;
→ this covers other (F/M/P = full / mostly /
partial).
Top CVEs of this weakness type, ranked by Risk Priority
| CVE | Risk | CVSS | EPSS | Published |
|---|---|---|---|---|
CVE-2017-7905 | 7.0 | 9.8 | 0.0128 | 2017-06-30 |
CVE-2020-10275 | 7.0 | 9.8 | 0.0096 | 2020-06-24 |
CVE-2025-31229 UPD | 7.0 | 9.1 | 0.0072 | 2025-07-30 |
CVE-2021-21507 | 5.5 | 8.8 | 0.0054 | 2021-04-30 |
CVE-2020-14481 | 5.5 | 7.8 | 0.0016 | 2022-02-24 |
CVE-2022-38469 | 5.5 | 7.5 | 0.0061 | 2023-01-18 |
CVE-2022-45099 | 5.5 | 7.8 | 0.0019 | 2023-02-01 |
CVE-2023-0525 | 5.5 | 7.5 | 0.0048 | 2023-08-04 |
CVE-2024-0556 | 5.5 | 7.1 | 0.0041 | 2024-01-16 |
CVE-2024-28270 UPD | 5.5 | 8.1 | 0.0043 | 2024-04-08 |
CVE-2024-24279 UPD | 5.5 | 8.8 | 0.0015 | 2024-04-08 |
CVE-2024-45394 | 5.5 | 8.8 | 0.0009 | 2024-09-03 |
CVE-2024-8455 | 5.5 | 8.1 | 0.0033 | 2024-09-30 |
CVE-2024-45273 | 5.5 | 8.4 | 0.0009 | 2024-10-15 |
CVE-2025-2862 | 5.5 | 7.5 | 0.0020 | 2025-03-28 |
CVE-2020-10919 | 3.5 | 5.9 | 0.0159 | 2020-07-23 |
CVE-2013-1053 | 3.5 | 5.5 | 0.0019 | 2021-01-13 |
CVE-2023-0356 | 3.5 | 5.7 | 0.0047 | 2023-01-26 |
CVE-2022-34445 | 3.5 | 6.0 | 0.0017 | 2023-02-11 |
CVE-2023-22271 | 3.5 | 5.3 | 0.0082 | 2023-03-22 |
CVE-2023-43776 | 3.5 | 6.8 | 0.0012 | 2023-10-17 |
CVE-2023-7237 | 3.5 | 5.7 | 0.0031 | 2024-01-23 |
CVE-2024-23492 UPD | 3.5 | 5.7 | 0.0025 | 2024-03-01 |
CVE-2024-34113 | 3.5 | 5.5 | 0.0034 | 2024-06-13 |
CVE-2024-34542 | 3.5 | 5.7 | 0.0021 | 2024-09-27 |