The product relies on third-party components that are not actively supported or maintained by the original developer or a trusted proxy for the original developer.
View on MITRERelying on unmaintained components makes it difficult or impossible to fix significant bugs and vulnerabilities, can render code obsolete, and undermine security by complicating maintenance and increasing the risk of new vulnerabilities.
No mitigation information available for this CWE.
No detection method information available for this CWE.
Perl module for BSON serialization includes a component that reached end-of-life approximately five years previously, but has multiple vulnerabilities.
View DetailsClosed-source cloud storage product includes an unmaintained third-party component that allows denial of service
View DetailsAdditional facts reviewed against primary or authoritative security sources.
Documented detection approaches include Automated Static Analysis; recorded impacts include Reduce Maintainability, and Varies by Context; observed examples include CVE-2025-40906, and CVE-2024-35252. Use these source-defined anchors to turn CWE-1104 into implementation, review, and verification checks for the affected component.
CWE-1104: Use of Unmaintained Third Party Components — MITRE CWEUse NIST SSDF practices to make prevention of CWE-1104, Use of Unmaintained Third Party Components, an explicit development outcome. Translate the CWE definition into security requirements and design constraints, choose safer implementation patterns and toolchain checks, and define acceptance evidence before release. Feed every confirmed occurrence back into the requirements, design review, and coding rules so the same root cause is removed across the product rather than patched in one location.
NIST SP 800-218 Secure Software Development Framework — National Institute of Standards and TechnologyUse CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog to test whether a vulnerability mapped to CWE-1104, Use of Unmaintained Third Party Components, has evidence of exploitation in the wild. Confirm the CVE-to-CWE root-cause mapping independently before attaching the example, then capture the affected product, required action, and remediation deadline. A missing KEV match is not evidence that the weakness is unexploited, and a KEV entry must not be generalized to every occurrence of this CWE.
Known Exploited Vulnerabilities Catalog — Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security AgencyApply MITRE's full root-cause mapping guidance when using CWE-1104, Use of Unmaintained Third Party Components. Separate weakness language from attacker prerequisites and technical impact, check the entry's abstraction and vulnerability-mapping notes, and prefer the most specific Base or Variant supported by the evidence. Record the rejected alternatives and require an independent review before the mapping is used for remediation trends or program metrics.
CVE to CWE Root Cause Mapping Guidance — MITRE CWEApply MITRE's root-cause mapping quick tips to CWE-1104, Use of Unmaintained Third Party Components. Confirm the finding describes the causal weakness rather than an impact or attack pattern, compare the abstraction and mapping notes with plausible alternatives, and have a second reviewer challenge the selection. Preserve the evidence and reasoning so recurring defects can be measured against one consistent identifier.
CVE to CWE Root Cause Mapping Quick Tips — MITRE CWECWE-1104: Use of Unmaintained Third Party Components is a Common Weakness Enumeration (CWE) entry maintained by MITRE. The product relies on third-party components that are not actively supported or maintained by the original developer or a trusted proxy for the original developer.
If exploited, CWE-1104 (Use of Unmaintained Third Party Components) it can compromise Other, leading to outcomes such as Reduce Maintainability and Varies by Context.
CWE-1104 commonly affects Not Language-Specific. Note that weaknesses are often language-agnostic patterns, so secure coding practices apply broadly.
MITRE documents real CVEs mapped to CWE-1104, including CVE-2025-40906 and CVE-2024-35252. You can look up the full details of each CVE, including CVSS scores and remediation guidance, on our CVE Lookup tool.
A CWE (Common Weakness Enumeration) like CWE-1104 describes a category of software weakness — the underlying flaw type. A CVE (Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures) identifies a specific, real-world vulnerability in a particular product. In short, a CWE is the kind of mistake, and a CVE is an instance of that mistake being found in software.