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The product performs a key exchange with an actor without verifying the identity of that actor.
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Performing a key exchange will preserve the integrity of the information sent between two entities, but this will not guarantee that the entities are who they claim they are. This may enable an attacker to impersonate an actor by modifying traffic between the two entities. Typically, this involves a victim client that contacts a malicious server that is impersonating a trusted server. If the client skips authentication or ignores an authentication failure, the malicious server may request authentication information from the user. The malicious server can then use this authentication information to log in to the trusted server using the victim's credentials, sniff traffic between the victim and trusted server, etc.
14 recorded CVEs are caused by CWE-322 (Key Exchange without Entity Authentication). The highest-severity and most recent are shown first. 5 new CWE-322 CVEs have been recorded so far in 2026 (2 in 2025).
Keylime: keylime: authentication bypass allows unauthorized administrative operations due to missing client-side tls authentication
Apstra: SSH host key validation vulnerability for managed devices
Cisco Nexus Dashboard Fabric Controller SSH Host Key Vulnerability
Showing 12 of 14 recorded CWE-322 CVEs. Track new ones as they are published and get AI-written analysis and fixes.
Monitor CWE-322 vulnerabilitiesWhat can happen when CWE-322 is exploited.
Bypass Protection Mechanism
Affects: Access Control
No authentication takes place in this process, bypassing an assumed protection of encryption.
Read Application Data
Affects: Confidentiality
The encrypted communication between a user and a trusted host may be subject to sniffing by any actor in the communication path.
Typically introduced during these phases of the software lifecycle.
Practical mitigations for CWE-322, grouped by where in the lifecycle they apply.
Ensure that proper authentication is included in the system design.
Understand and properly implement all checks necessary to ensure the identity of entities involved in encrypted communications.
Automated static analysis, commonly referred to as Static Application Security Testing (SAST), can find some instances of this weakness by analyzing source code (or binary/compiled code) without having to execute it. Typically, this is done by building a model of data flow and control flow, then searching for potentially-vulnerable patterns that connect "sources" (origins of input) with "sinks" (destinations where the data interacts with external components, a lower layer such as the OS, etc.)
Illustrative examples from MITRE showing how the weakness appears in code.
Many systems have used Diffie-Hellman key exchange without authenticating the entities exchanging keys, allowing attackers to influence communications by redirecting or interfering with the communication path. Many people using SSL/TLS skip the authentication (often unknowingly).
Common questions about CWE-322.
The product performs a key exchange with an actor without verifying the identity of that actor.
14 recorded CVEs are attributed to CWE-322, including CVE-2026-1709, CVE-2025-13914, CVE-2025-20163.
Ensure that proper authentication is included in the system design.
Automated Static Analysis: Automated static analysis, commonly referred to as Static Application Security Testing (SAST), can find some instances of this weakness by analyzing source code (or binary/compiled code) without having to execute it. Typically, this is done by building a model of data flow and control flow, then searching for potentially-vulnerable patterns that connect "sources" (origins of input) with "sinks" (destinations where the data interacts with external components, a lower layer such as the OS, etc.)
Exploiting CWE-322 can lead to: Bypass Protection Mechanism, Read Application Data.
14 recorded CVEs are caused by CWE-322; none are currently in CISA's KEV catalog of actively exploited flaws.
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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