Quiz Entry - updated: 2026.07.14
What is the CWE Top 25, and how does it differ from the OWASP Top 10?
The CWE Top 25 is MITRE's annual ranking of the most dangerous software weaknesses across all software (not just web), based on real-world prevalence × severity from the NVD/CVE corpus.
| OWASP Top 10 | CWE Top 25 | |
|---|---|---|
| Maintained by | OWASP community | MITRE / NVD |
| Scope | Web applications | All software |
| Items | 10 risk categories | 25 specific weakness types (CWEs) |
| Cadence | ~every 4 years | Annual |
| Used for | App security awareness | Pen-test scoping, compliance, secure-coding training |
2023 CWE Top 25 highlights (often appearing in the top 5):
- CWE-787 Out-of-bounds Write
- CWE-79 Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation (XSS)
- CWE-89 Improper Neutralization of Special Elements in SQL Command (SQLi)
- CWE-416 Use After Free
- CWE-78 OS Command Injection
The other go-to reference — OWASP Cheat Sheet Series at cheatsheetseries.owasp.org — gives prescriptive how-to guidance per topic (Session Management, Authentication, XSS Prevention, CSRF Prevention, …). Bookmark it; it's what experienced developers reach for first.
Links:
- CWE Top 25: https://cwe.mitre.org/top25/
- OWASP Cheat Sheets: https://cheatsheetseries.owasp.org/
Tip: OWASP Top 10 is "what should I worry about?". CWE Top 25 is "which specific weakness is causing real CVEs right now?". You want both.