What is Common Weakness Enumeration (CWE)?
CWE stands for Common Weakness Enumeration. It is a community-developed list of common software and hardware weaknesses that could potentially lead to security vulnerabilities. Managed by MITRE, the CWE List serves as a standardized language to describe flaws in code, system design, implementation, or architecture that may be introduced during product development.
Why Does CWE Matter?
Common Weakness Enumeration (CWE) is essential because it helps organizations identify and eliminate software and hardware security flaws before they turn into exploitable vulnerabilities. By using CWE, security teams and developers gain a shared language to describe and address the root causes of security issues and not just the symptoms.
What’s the Difference Between CWE and CVE?
The key difference between CWE (Common Weakness Enumeration) and CVE (Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures) lies in what they describe:
- CWE refers to the types of weaknesses that can exist in software or hardware (e.g., poor input validation, hard-coded credentials). It's a category or root cause of a potential problem.
- CVE identifies specific, real-world instances where a weakness has been found and documented as a vulnerability in a product or system (e.g., a buffer overflow in version 1.2.3 of a certain application).
