What CVEs are caused by CWE-305?

143 recorded CVEs are attributed to CWE-305, including CVE-2024-37085, CVE-2025-31161, CVE-2025-4320. 2 are listed in CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog.

What are the consequences of CWE-305?

Exploiting CWE-305 can lead to: Bypass Protection Mechanism.

Is CWE-305 actively exploited?

Yes. 2 CWE-305 vulnerabilities are in CISA's KEV catalog of actively exploited flaws, out of 143 recorded CVEs.

Base weakness

Draft

CWE-305: Authentication Bypass by Primary Weakness

The authentication algorithm is sound, but the implemented mechanism can be bypassed as the result of a separate weakness that is primary to the authentication error.

Last updated May 1, 2026

143

Recorded CVEs

With this primary weakness

KEVs

In the CISA KEV catalog

Not rated

Likelihood of exploit

Per MITRE

Base

Abstraction

MITRE classification

Overview

CWE-305 (Authentication Bypass by Primary Weakness) is a base-level software weakness catalogued by MITRE in the Common Weakness Enumeration (CWE). It describes a recurring type of mistake that can lead to exploitable security vulnerabilities.

Real-world CVEs

143 recorded CVEs are caused by CWE-305 (Authentication Bypass by Primary Weakness), including 2 in CISA's KEV (Known Exploited Vulnerabilities) catalog. KEVs are shown first. 40 new CWE-305 CVEs have been recorded so far in 2026 (36 in 2025).

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Common consequences

What can happen when CWE-305 is exploited.

Bypass Protection Mechanism

Affects: Access Control

How it happens

When it is introduced

Typically introduced during these phases of the software lifecycle.

Implementation

Illustrative examples

Real CVEs that MITRE cites as examples of this weakness.

CVE-2002-1374 — The provided password is only compared against the first character of the real password.
CVE-2000-0979 — The password is not properly checked, which allows remote attackers to bypass access controls by sending a 1-byte password that matches the first character of the real password.
CVE-2001-0088 — Chain: Forum software does not properly initialize an array, which inadvertently sets the password to a single character, allowing remote attackers to easily guess the password and gain administrative privileges.

Terminology & mappings

Mapped taxonomies

PLOVER: Authentication Bypass by Primary Weakness

Frequently asked questions

Common questions about CWE-305.

What is CWE-305?: The authentication algorithm is sound, but the implemented mechanism can be bypassed as the result of a separate weakness that is primary to the authentication error.
What CVEs are caused by CWE-305?: 143 recorded CVEs are attributed to CWE-305, including CVE-2024-37085, CVE-2025-31161, CVE-2025-4320. 2 are listed in CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog.
What are the consequences of CWE-305?: Exploiting CWE-305 can lead to: Bypass Protection Mechanism.
Is CWE-305 actively exploited?: Yes. 2 CWE-305 vulnerabilities are in CISA's KEV catalog of actively exploited flaws, out of 143 recorded CVEs.

References

Weakness data is sourced from the MITRE CWE catalog (v4.20). CVE associations are aggregated and kept current by RadicalNotion.AI.

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