Security Resilience

CWE · MITRE source

CWE-295Improper Certificate Validation

Abstraction: Base · CVEs in our corpus: 1,661

The product does not validate, or incorrectly validates, a certificate.

Last updated: 16 October 2026 07:24 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: full · 7 mapping(s) from 3 framework(s): STIG oracle linux 8 3 (full) · STIG rhel 7 2 (mostly) · STIG rhel 8 2 (mostly)

See the full cumulative-coverage rollup →

OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)

This weakness contributes to A07:2025 Authentication Failures.

Control responseHuman-reviewed

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

Prevent
Stop it (NIST 800-53 / CSF Protect)
  • SC-17 Public Key Infrastructure Certificates
  • SC-45 System Time Synchronization
  • SA-19 Component Authenticity
  • PR.DS-02
Detect
Catch it (CSF Detect / Respond)

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Harden
Shrink the surface (DISA STIG)
  • 12 hardening rules · 3 OS baselines
Validate
Prove the fix (OWASP ASVS)

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NIST 800-53 r5 controls PROPOSED for this weakness (3)AI-assisted

These are model PROPOSALS, not graded mappings. They come from controls_to_cwe_proposals, which carries no grade field at all; across the CWE pages 1,540 of 1,722 such associations (89%) have never been graded by anything. The heading said “address” until 2026-09-29, which asserted a relationship the data does not carry. Graded cross-walks are on the framework map, not here.

Control Title Family Why it addresses this CWE
SC-17Public Key Infrastructure CertificatesSCgraded mostly Mandates approved trust anchors and issuance policies, directly preventing acceptance of unvalidated or untrusted certificates.
SC-45System Time SynchronizationSCCorrect system time is required for proper enforcement of certificate notBefore/notAfter dates and time-based revocation checks.
SA-19Component AuthenticitySAWhen certificates are used to establish component provenance, the control requires correct certificate validation procedures.

Top CVEs of this weakness type, ranked by Risk Priority

CVE Risk CVSS EPSS Published
CVE-2022-20703 KEV 10.010.00.09202022-02-10
CVE-2009-3555 9.99.80.87262009-11-09
CVE-2026-85102 KEV 9.99.80.50402026-09-09
CVE-2023-27823 9.49.80.53592023-05-12
CVE-2022-26923 KEV 9.28.80.83502022-05-10
CVE-2020-0601 KEV 8.78.10.89442020-01-14
CVE-2023-20963 KEV 8.57.80.01462023-03-24
CVE-2017-2800 8.19.80.08532017-05-24
CVE-2018-4991 7.99.80.03962018-05-19
CVE-2018-12829 7.99.80.05072018-08-29
CVE-2020-28907 7.99.80.04492021-05-24
CVE-2022-42979 7.98.80.24332023-01-06
CVE-2015-2320 7.89.80.03542018-01-08
CVE-2018-21029 7.89.80.03142019-10-30
CVE-2021-33907 7.89.80.02962021-09-27
CVE-2024-49369 7.89.80.02912024-11-12
CVE-2020-1952 7.79.80.02682020-04-27
CVE-2019-18847 7.79.80.02272020-08-26
CVE-2023-26463 7.79.80.02282023-04-15
CVE-2015-3886 7.69.80.01732017-07-21
CVE-2016-1000030 7.69.80.01842018-09-05
CVE-2019-10914 7.69.80.01442019-04-08
CVE-2019-1010275 7.69.80.01362019-07-17
CVE-2022-22885 7.69.80.01302022-02-16
CVE-2010-1378 7.59.80.01272010-11-15