CWE-296: Improper Following of a Certificate's Chain of Trust

BaseDraftExploit Likelihood: Low

The product does not follow, or incorrectly follows, the chain of trust for a certificate back to a trusted root certificate.

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Extended Description

There are several ways in which the chain of trust might be broken, including but not limited to: Any certificate in the chain is self-signed, unless it is the root. Not every intermediate certificate is checked, starting from the original certificate all the way up to the root certificate. An intermediate, CA-signed certificate does not have the expected Basic Constraints or other important extensions. The root certificate has been compromised or authorized to the wrong party.

Technical Details

Structure
Simple
Vulnerability Mapping
ALLOWED

Applicable To

Languages
Not Language-Specific
Platforms

Source-backed guidance

Additional facts reviewed against primary or authoritative security sources.

Verify controls for CWE-296 with SSDF evidence

Use NIST SSDF verification and vulnerability-response practices to detect CWE-296, Improper Following of a Certificate's Chain of Trust, throughout the product lifecycle. Derive review questions, static or dynamic checks, and negative tests from the CWE's causal behavior; define the components and lifecycle stages each check covers; and retain findings with enough evidence to distinguish the root cause from symptoms and impacts. Track escapes and false negatives, then improve the verification plan after every confirmed occurrence.

NIST SP 800-218 Secure Software Development Framework — National Institute of Standards and Technology

Address Improper Following of a Certificate's Chain of Trust during Architecture and Design

MITRE associates mitigation with Architecture and Design, and Implementation; documented detection approaches include Automated Static Analysis; recorded impacts include Hide Activities, Gain Privileges or Assume Identity, and Execute Unauthorized Code or Commands. Use these source-defined anchors to turn CWE-296 into implementation, review, and verification checks for the affected component.

CWE-296: Improper Following of a Certificate's Chain of Trust — MITRE CWE

Triage CWE-296 against known exploitation evidence

Use CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog to test whether a vulnerability mapped to CWE-296, Improper Following of a Certificate's Chain of Trust, 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 Agency

Apply precise root-cause mapping to CWE-296

Apply MITRE's full root-cause mapping guidance when using CWE-296, Improper Following of a Certificate's Chain of Trust. 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 CWE

Validate CWE-296 with root-cause mapping checks

Apply MITRE's root-cause mapping quick tips to CWE-296, Improper Following of a Certificate's Chain of Trust. 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 CWE

Frequently Asked Questions

What is CWE-296: Improper Following of a Certificate's Chain of Trust?+

CWE-296: Improper Following of a Certificate's Chain of Trust is a Common Weakness Enumeration (CWE) entry maintained by MITRE. The product does not follow, or incorrectly follows, the chain of trust for a certificate back to a trusted root certificate. There are several ways in which the chain of trust might be broken, including but not limited to: Any certificate in the chain is self-signed, unless it is the root. Not every intermediate certificate is checked, starting from the original certificate all the way up to the root certificate. An intermediate, CA-signed certificate does not have the expected Basic Constraints or other important extensions. The root certificate has been compromised or authorized to the wrong party.

What are the security consequences of Improper Following of a Certificate's Chain of Trust?+

If exploited, CWE-296 (Improper Following of a Certificate's Chain of Trust) it can compromise Non-Repudiation, Integrity, Confidentiality, Availability and Access Control, leading to outcomes such as Hide Activities, Gain Privileges or Assume Identity and Execute Unauthorized Code or Commands.

How do you prevent or mitigate Improper Following of a Certificate's Chain of Trust?+

Recommended mitigations for CWE-296 include: Ensure that proper certificate checking is included in the system design. Understand, and properly implement all checks necessary to ensure the integrity of certificate trust integrity. If certificate pinning is being used, ensure that all relevant properties of the certificate are fully validated before the certificate is pinned, including the full chain of trust.

Which programming languages are affected by Improper Following of a Certificate's Chain of Trust?+

CWE-296 commonly affects Not Language-Specific. Note that weaknesses are often language-agnostic patterns, so secure coding practices apply broadly.

What are real-world examples of Improper Following of a Certificate's Chain of Trust?+

MITRE documents real CVEs mapped to CWE-296, including CVE-2016-2402, CVE-2008-4989, CVE-2012-5821, CVE-2009-3046 and CVE-2009-0265. You can look up the full details of each CVE, including CVSS scores and remediation guidance, on our CVE Lookup tool.

What is the difference between a CWE and a CVE?+

A CWE (Common Weakness Enumeration) like CWE-296 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.

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