November 20, 2024 at 03:43PM
MITRE released its annual list of the top 25 common software weaknesses, highlighting vulnerabilities behind 31,000 disclosures from June 2023 to June 2024. These flaws can be exploited by attackers to gain control over systems or steal data. Organizations are encouraged to prioritize addressing these vulnerabilities in their security strategies.
### Meeting Takeaways:
1. **Introduction of the Top 25 Software Weaknesses**:
– MITRE has published its annual ranking of the top 25 most common and dangerous software weaknesses, based on over 31,000 vulnerabilities disclosed between June 2023 and June 2024.
2. **Definition of Software Weaknesses**:
– These refer to flaws, bugs, vulnerabilities, and errors in software code, architecture, implementation, or design that can be exploited by attackers.
3. **Consequences of Exploitable Weaknesses**:
– Exploits can lead to system breaches, data theft, and denial-of-service attacks.
4. **Purpose of the Ranking**:
– The list serves as a guide for organizations to inform security strategies and prioritize weaknesses in their software development and procurement processes.
5. **Analysis Methodology**:
– MITRE’s ranking is based on a scoring system that evaluates the severity and frequency of weaknesses using data from 31,770 CVE records. Special attention was paid to vulnerabilities added to the CISA’s Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog.
6. **Key Recommendations**:
– Organizations are advised to review the list and incorporate it into their software security strategies to prevent vulnerabilities during the software lifecycle.
7. **Top Five Software Weaknesses**:
– **1. CWE-79**: Cross-site Scripting – Score: 56.92
– **2. CWE-787**: Out-of-bounds Write – Score: 45.20
– **3. CWE-89**: SQL Injection – Score: 35.88
– **4. CWE-352**: Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) – Score: 19.57
– **5. CWE-22**: Path Traversal – Score: 12.74
8. **CISA’s Ongoing Alerts**:
– CISA continues to issue “Secure by Design” alerts, focusing on eliminating known vulnerabilities and urging tech vendors to address urgent security flaws.
9. **Recent Cybersecurity Warnings**:
– The FBI, NSA, and Five Eyes cybersecurity authorities highlighted the increase in the exploitation of zero-day vulnerabilities in 2023, which poses significant risks to cybersecurity.
10. **Call to Action for Tech Executives**:
– There is a concerted push from agencies to mitigate vulnerabilities such as OS command injection, path traversal, and SQL injection in technology products and code.
This structured summary highlights the essential points from the meeting notes, emphasizing the significance of understanding and addressing software weaknesses.