CWE

Common Weakness Enumeration

A community-developed list of SW & HW weaknesses that can become vulnerabilities
New to CWE? click here!
CWE Most Important Hardware Weaknesses
CWE Top 25 Most Dangerous Weaknesses
Home > CWE List > CWE-326: Inadequate Encryption Strength (4.20)  
ID
  • Home
  • Who We Are User Stories History Documents Videos
  • Basics
    Root Cause Mapping   ►
    Guidance Quick Tips Examples
    How to Contribute Weakness Content FAQs Glossary
  • Top-N Lists   ►
    Top 25 Software Top Hardware Top 10 KEV Weaknesses
    CWE List   ►
    Current Version Reports Visualizations Releases Archive
    Downloads REST API
  • News   ►
    Current News Blog Podcast News Archive
    CWE Board Working Groups & Special Interest Groups Email Lists
    • Search CWE List Search Website

    CWE-326: Inadequate Encryption Strength

    Weakness ID: 326
    Vulnerability Mapping: ALLOWED This CWE ID could be used to map to real-world vulnerabilities in limited situations requiring careful review (with careful review of mapping notes)
    Abstraction: Class Class - a weakness that is described in a very abstract fashion, typically independent of any specific language or technology. More specific than a Pillar Weakness, but more general than a Base Weakness. Class level weaknesses typically describe issues in terms of 1 or 2 of the following dimensions: behavior, property, and resource.
    View customized information:
    For users who are interested in more notional aspects of a weakness. Example: educators, technical writers, and project/program managers. For users who are concerned with the practical application and details about the nature of a weakness and how to prevent it from happening. Example: tool developers, security researchers, pen-testers, incident response analysts. For users who are mapping an issue to CWE/CAPEC IDs, i.e., finding the most appropriate CWE for a specific issue (e.g., a CVE record). Example: tool developers, security researchers. For users who wish to see all available information for the CWE/CAPEC entry. For users who want to customize what details are displayed.
    ×

    Edit Custom Filter


    + Description
    The product stores or transmits sensitive data using an encryption scheme that is theoretically sound, but is not strong enough for the level of protection required.
    + Extended Description
    A weak encryption scheme can be subjected to brute force attacks that have a reasonable chance of succeeding using current attack methods and resources.
    + Common Consequences
    Section HelpThis table specifies different individual consequences associated with the weakness. The Scope identifies the application security area that is violated, while the Impact describes the negative technical impact that arises if an adversary succeeds in exploiting this weakness. The Likelihood provides information about how likely the specific consequence is expected to be seen relative to the other consequences in the list. For example, there may be high likelihood that a weakness will be exploited to achieve a certain impact, but a low likelihood that it will be exploited to achieve a different impact.
    Impact Details

    Bypass Protection Mechanism; Read Application Data

    		Scope: Access Control, Confidentiality

    An attacker may be able to decrypt the data using brute force attacks.
    + Potential Mitigations
    Phase(s) Mitigation

    Architecture and Design
    Use an encryption scheme that is currently considered to be strong by experts in the field.
    + Relationships
    Section Help This table shows the weaknesses and high level categories that are related to this weakness. These relationships are defined as ChildOf, ParentOf, MemberOf and give insight to similar items that may exist at higher and lower levels of abstraction. In addition, relationships such as PeerOf and CanAlsoBe are defined to show similar weaknesses that the user may want to explore.
    + Relevant to the view "Research Concepts" (View-1000)
    Nature Type ID Name
    ChildOf Pillar Pillar - a weakness that is the most abstract type of weakness and represents a theme for all class/base/variant weaknesses related to it. A Pillar is different from a Category as a Pillar is still technically a type of weakness that describes a mistake, while a Category represents a common characteristic used to group related things. 693 Protection Mechanism Failure
    ParentOf Base Base - a weakness that is still mostly independent of a resource or technology, but with sufficient details to provide specific methods for detection and prevention. Base level weaknesses typically describe issues in terms of 2 or 3 of the following dimensions: behavior, property, technology, language, and resource. 328 Use of Weak Hash
    + Relevant to the view "Weaknesses for Simplified Mapping of Published Vulnerabilities" (View-1003)
    Nature Type ID Name
    MemberOf View View - a subset of CWE entries that provides a way of examining CWE content. The two main view structures are Slices (flat lists) and Graphs (containing relationships between entries). 1003 Weaknesses for Simplified Mapping of Published Vulnerabilities
    + Relevant to the view "Architectural Concepts" (View-1008)
    Nature Type ID Name
    MemberOf Category Category - a CWE entry that contains a set of other entries that share a common characteristic. 1013 Encrypt Data
    + Modes Of Introduction
    Section HelpThe different Modes of Introduction provide information about how and when this weakness may be introduced. The Phase identifies a point in the life cycle at which introduction may occur, while the Note provides a typical scenario related to introduction during the given phase.
    Phase Note
    Architecture and Design COMMISSION: This weakness refers to an incorrect design related to an architectural security tactic.
    + Applicable Platforms
    Section HelpThis listing shows possible areas for which the given weakness could appear. These may be for specific named Languages, Operating Systems, Architectures, Paradigms, Technologies, or a class of such platforms. The platform is listed along with how frequently the given weakness appears for that instance.
    Languages

    Class: Not Language-Specific (Undetermined Prevalence)

    + Selected Observed Examples

    Note: this is a curated list of examples for users to understand the variety of ways in which this weakness can be introduced. It is not a complete list of all CVEs that are related to this CWE entry.

    Reference Description
    Weak encryption
    Weak encryption (chosen plaintext attack)
    Weak encryption
    Weak encryption produces same ciphertext from the same plaintext blocks.
    Weak encryption
    Weak encryption scheme
    Weak encryption (XOR)
    Weak encryption (reversible algorithm).
    Weak encryption (one-to-one mapping).
    Encryption error uses fixed salt, simplifying brute force / dictionary attacks (overlaps randomness).
    + Weakness Ordinalities
    Ordinality Description
    Primary
    (where the weakness exists independent of other weaknesses)
    + Detection Methods
    Method Details

    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.)

    Effectiveness: High
    + Memberships
    Section HelpThis MemberOf Relationships table shows additional CWE Categories and Views that reference this weakness as a member. This information is often useful in understanding where a weakness fits within the context of external information sources.
    Nature Type ID Name
    MemberOf CategoryCategory - a CWE entry that contains a set of other entries that share a common characteristic. 719 OWASP Top Ten 2007 Category A8 - Insecure Cryptographic Storage
    MemberOf CategoryCategory - a CWE entry that contains a set of other entries that share a common characteristic. 720 OWASP Top Ten 2007 Category A9 - Insecure Communications
    MemberOf CategoryCategory - a CWE entry that contains a set of other entries that share a common characteristic. 729 OWASP Top Ten 2004 Category A8 - Insecure Storage
    MemberOf CategoryCategory - a CWE entry that contains a set of other entries that share a common characteristic. 816 OWASP Top Ten 2010 Category A7 - Insecure Cryptographic Storage
    MemberOf CategoryCategory - a CWE entry that contains a set of other entries that share a common characteristic. 934 OWASP Top Ten 2013 Category A6 - Sensitive Data Exposure
    MemberOf CategoryCategory - a CWE entry that contains a set of other entries that share a common characteristic. 959 SFP Secondary Cluster: Weak Cryptography
    MemberOf CategoryCategory - a CWE entry that contains a set of other entries that share a common characteristic. 1029 OWASP Top Ten 2017 Category A3 - Sensitive Data Exposure
    MemberOf CategoryCategory - a CWE entry that contains a set of other entries that share a common characteristic. 1346 OWASP Top Ten 2021 Category A02:2021 - Cryptographic Failures
    MemberOf CategoryCategory - a CWE entry that contains a set of other entries that share a common characteristic. 1402 Comprehensive Categorization: Encryption
    MemberOf CategoryCategory - a CWE entry that contains a set of other entries that share a common characteristic. 1439 OWASP Top Ten 2025 Category A04:2025 - Cryptographic Failures
    + Vulnerability Mapping Notes
    Usage ALLOWED-WITH-REVIEW
    (this CWE ID could be used to map to real-world vulnerabilities in limited situations requiring careful review)
    Reason Abstraction

    Rationale

    		This CWE entry is a Class and might have Base-level children that would be more appropriate

    Comments

    		Examine children of this entry to see if there is a better fit
    + Taxonomy Mappings
    Mapped Taxonomy Name Node ID Fit Mapped Node Name
    PLOVER Weak Encryption
    OWASP Top Ten 2007 A8 CWE More Specific Insecure Cryptographic Storage
    OWASP Top Ten 2007 A9 CWE More Specific Insecure Communications
    OWASP Top Ten 2004 A8 CWE More Specific Insecure Storage
    + References
    [REF-7] Michael Howard and David LeBlanc. "Writing Secure Code". Chapter 8, "Cryptographic Foibles" Page 259. 2nd Edition. Microsoft Press. 2002-12-04.
    <https://www.microsoftpressstore.com/store/writing-secure-code-9780735617223>.
    [REF-44] Michael Howard, David LeBlanc and John Viega. "24 Deadly Sins of Software Security". "Sin 21: Using the Wrong Cryptography." Page 315. McGraw-Hill. 2010.
    + Content History
    + Submissions
    Submission Date Submitter Organization
    2006-07-19
    (CWE Draft 3, 2006-07-19)     		PLOVER
    + Modifications
    Modification Date Modifier Organization
    2025-12-11
    (CWE 4.19, 2025-12-11)     		CWE Content Team MITRE
    updated Relationships, Weakness_Ordinalities
    2023-06-29
    (CWE 4.12, 2023-06-29)     		CWE Content Team MITRE
    updated Mapping_Notes
    2023-04-27
    (CWE 4.11, 2023-04-27)     		CWE Content Team MITRE
    updated Detection_Factors, Relationships
    2023-01-31
    (CWE 4.10, 2023-01-31)     		CWE Content Team MITRE
    updated Description, Relationships
    2021-10-28
    (CWE 4.6, 2021-10-28)     		CWE Content Team MITRE
    updated Relationships
    2020-02-24
    (CWE 4.0, 2020-02-24)     		CWE Content Team MITRE
    updated Maintenance_Notes, Potential_Mitigations, Relationships
    2019-06-20
    (CWE 3.3, 2019-06-20)     		CWE Content Team MITRE
    updated Relationships
    2019-01-03
    (CWE 3.2, 2019-01-03)     		CWE Content Team MITRE
    updated Related_Attack_Patterns
    2018-03-27
    (CWE 3.1, 2018-03-27)     		CWE Content Team MITRE
    updated References, Relationships
    2017-11-08
    (CWE 3.0, 2017-11-08)     		CWE Content Team MITRE
    updated Applicable_Platforms, Modes_of_Introduction, References, Relationships
    2015-12-07
    (CWE 2.9, 2015-12-07)     		CWE Content Team MITRE
    updated Relationships
    2014-07-30
    (CWE 2.8, 2014-07-31)     		CWE Content Team MITRE
    updated Relationships
    2013-07-17
    (CWE 2.5, 2013-07-17)     		CWE Content Team MITRE
    updated Relationships
    2012-05-11
    (CWE 2.2, 2012-05-15)     		CWE Content Team MITRE
    updated References, Relationships
    2011-06-01
    (CWE 1.13, 2011-06-01)     		CWE Content Team MITRE
    updated Common_Consequences
    2010-06-21
    (CWE 1.9, 2010-06-21)     		CWE Content Team MITRE
    updated Relationships
    2010-02-16
    (CWE 1.8, 2010-02-16)     		CWE Content Team MITRE
    updated References
    2009-10-29
    (CWE 1.6, 2009-10-29)     		CWE Content Team MITRE
    updated Relationships
    2009-07-27
    (CWE 1.5, 2009-07-27)     		CWE Content Team MITRE
    updated Common_Consequences, Description, Maintenance_Notes, Name
    2009-07-08
    (CWE 1.5, 2009-07-27)     		CWE Content Team MITRE
    Clarified entry to focus on algorithms that do not have major weaknesses, but may not be strong enough for some purposes.
    2009-05-27
    (CWE 1.4, 2009-05-27)     		CWE Content Team MITRE
    updated Related_Attack_Patterns
    2009-03-10
    (CWE 1.3, 2009-03-10)     		CWE Content Team MITRE
    updated Relationships
    2008-09-08
    (CWE 1.0, 2008-09-09)     		CWE Content Team MITRE
    updated Maintenance_Notes, Relationships, Taxonomy_Mappings
    2008-08-15
    (CWE 1.0, 2008-09-09)     		Veracode
    Suggested OWASP Top Ten 2004 mapping
    + Previous Entry Names
    Change Date Previous Entry Name
    2009-07-27 Weak Encryption
    Page Last Updated: April 30, 2026
     

    Use of the Common Weakness Enumeration (CWE™) and the associated references from this website are subject to the Terms of Use. CWE is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and managed by the Homeland Security Systems Engineering and Development Institute (HSSEDI) which is operated by The MITRE Corporation (MITRE). Copyright © 2006–2026, The MITRE Corporation. CWE, CWSS, CWRAF, and the CWE logo are trademarks of The MITRE Corporation.