Difference between CWE & CVE

Difference in Common Vulnerabilities & Exposure (CVE) and Common Weakness Enumeration (CWE)

CWE is a community-developed list of common software security weaknesses, it serves a common language, a measuring stick for software security tools and as a baseline for weakness identification mitigation and prevention efforts. 

CVE has to do with the specific instance within a product or system – not the underlying flaws. 

CWE stands for common weakness enumeration and has to do with the vulnerability not the instance within a product or system. 

In general language, CWE labels the weakness that creates vulnerabilities within the system. CWE is a formal list of common software weaknesses that can occur in software architecture, design, code or implementation that can lead to exploitable security vulnerabilities. CWE was created to serve as a common language for describing software security weaknesses; serve as a standard measuring stick for software security tools targeting these weaknesses; and to provide a common baseline standard for weakness identification, mitigation, and prevention efforts. 

Examples of CWE are buffer overflow, format strings, flaws, faults, and bugs.

The main goal of the CWE initiative is to stop vulnerabilities at the source by educating software acquirers, designers, and programmers on how to eliminate the most common mistakes before the software is delivered. CWE serves as a resource for programmers as they design new software and write code, and supports educators in teaching security as part of the curriculum for software engineering, computer science, and management information systems; CEW ultimately helps them prevent the kinds of security vulnerabilities that have plagued the software industry and put enterprises at risk. 

Benefits of CWE 

• CWE allows developers to minimize weaknesses in their software as early in the lifecycle as possible, improving its overall security. 
• CWE helps reduce risk industry-wide by enabling more effective community discussion about finding and mitigating these weaknesses in existing software and reducing them in future updates and releases. 
• CWE enables more effective description, selection, and use of the software security tools and services that organizations can use to find these weaknesses and reduce their risk now. 

Point to Consider:

1. The software developers need to apply secure coding standards and remove the known CWE from the software before delivery to the client. 
2. Security professionals should not consider only vulnerabilities, they should consider the CWE as well. It will help to avoid system breaches through zero-day vulnerabilities. CWE will help you to define the attack surface.
3. There are only a few vulnerability scanners that check for the CWE as well, shall be prioritized to deploy in the secure system design.