The product does not properly prevent a person's private, personal information from being accessed by actors who either (1) are not explicitly authorized to access the information or (2) do not have the implicit consent of the person about whom the information is collected.

What CVEs are caused by CWE-359?

173 recorded CVEs are attributed to CWE-359, including CVE-2022-0482, CVE-2022-2921, CVE-2022-1365.

How is CWE-359 detected?

Architecture or Design Review: Private personal data can enter a program in a variety of ways:

What are the consequences of CWE-359?

Exploiting CWE-359 can lead to: Read Application Data.

Is CWE-359 actively exploited?

173 recorded CVEs are caused by CWE-359; none are currently in CISA's KEV catalog of actively exploited flaws.

CWE-359: Exposure of Private Personal Information to an Unauthorized Actor (Privacy violation)

Real-world CVEs

173 recorded CVEs are caused by CWE-359 (Exposure of Private Personal Information to an Unauthorized Actor). The highest-severity and most recent are shown first. 21 new CWE-359 CVEs have been recorded so far in 2026 (73 in 2025).

CVE-2022-0482
Critical · CVSS 9.1 · EPSS 98th
2022-03-09
CVE-2022-2921
High · CVSS 8.8 · EPSS 60th
2022-08-21
CVE-2022-1365
High · CVSS 8.8 · EPSS 62th
2022-04-15
CVE-2026-26237
QuMagie
High · CVSS 8.7 · EPSS 20th
2026-06-10
CVE-2020-37173
AVideo Platform 8.1 - Information Disclosure (User Enumeration)
High · CVSS 8.7 · EPSS 42th
2026-02-11
CVE-2025-54125
XWiki Platform: Password and email exposure in xml.vm fields
High · CVSS 8.7 · EPSS 64th
2025-08-05
CVE-2025-53625
DynamicPageList3 exposes hidden/suppressed usernames
High · CVSS 8.7 · EPSS 36th
2025-07-10
CVE-2025-20060
Dario Health USB-C Blood Glucose Monitoring System Starter Kit Android Application Exposure of Private Personal Information to an Unauthorized Actor
High · CVSS 8.7 · EPSS 28th
2025-02-28
CVE-2024-47087
Information Disclosure Vulnerability
High · CVSS 8.7 · EPSS 34th
2024-09-19
CVE-2024-47085
Parameter Manipulation Vulnerability
High · CVSS 8.7 · EPSS 34th
2024-09-19
CVE-2024-45787
High · CVSS 8.7 · EPSS 34th
2024-09-11
CVE-2025-13008
Session Token Disclosure in M-Files Web
High · CVSS 8.6 · EPSS 40th
2025-12-19

Showing 12 of 173 recorded CWE-359 CVEs. Track new ones as they are published and get AI-written analysis and fixes.

Monitor CWE-359 vulnerabilities

CWE-359: Exposure of Private Personal Information to an Unauthorized Actor (Privacy violation)

How to prevent it

Practical mitigations for CWE-359, grouped by where in the lifecycle they apply.

Requirements

Identify and consult all relevant regulations for personal privacy. An organization may be required to comply with certain federal and state regulations, depending on its location, the type of business it conducts, and the nature of any private data it handles. Regulations may include Safe Harbor Privacy Framework [REF-340], Gramm-Leach Bliley Act (GLBA) [REF-341], Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) [REF-342], General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) [REF-1047], California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) [REF-1048], and others.

Architecture and Design

Carefully evaluate how secure design may interfere with privacy, and vice versa. Security and privacy concerns often seem to compete with each other. From a security perspective, all important operations should be recorded so that any anomalous activity can later be identified. However, when private data is involved, this practice can in fact create risk. Although there are many ways in which private data can be handled unsafely, a common risk stems from misplaced trust. Programmers often trust the operating environment in which a program runs, and therefore believe that it is acceptable store private information on the file system, in the registry, or in other locally-controlled resources. However, even if access to certain resources is restricted, this does not guarantee that the individuals who do have access can be trusted.

Implementation

Operation

Attack Surface Reduction

Some tools can automatically analyze documents to redact, strip, or "sanitize" private information, although some human review might be necessary. Tools may vary in terms of which document formats can be processed.

When calling an external program to automatically generate or convert documents, invoke the program with any available options that avoid generating sensitive metadata. Some formats have well-defined fields that could contain private data, such as Exchangeable image file format (Exif), which can contain potentially sensitive metadata such as geolocation, date, and time [REF-1515] [REF-1516].

Code examples

Illustrative examples from MITRE showing how the weakness appears in code.

The following code contains a logging statement that tracks the contents of records added to a database by storing them in a log file. Among other values that are stored, the getPassword() function returns the user-supplied plaintext password associated with the account.

Vulnerable example

csharp

pass = GetPassword();

The code in the example above logs a plaintext password to the filesystem. Although many developers trust the filesystem as a safe storage location for data, it should not be trusted implicitly, particularly when privacy is a concern.

This code uses location to determine the user's current US State location.

Vulnerable example

xml

<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.ACCESS_FINE_LOCATION"/>

Vulnerable example

java

locationClient = new LocationClient(this, this, this);

In 2004, an employee at AOL sold approximately 92 million private customer e-mail addresses to a spammer marketing an offshore gambling web site [REF-338]. In response to such high-profile exploits, the collection and management of private data is becoming increasingly regulated.

Real-world CVEs

CWE-359: Exposure of Private Personal Information to an Unauthorized Actor

Overview

Real-world CVEs

Common consequences

How it happens

When it is introduced

Applies to

How to prevent it

How to detect it

Architecture or Design Review

Automated Static Analysis

Automated Static Analysis

Code examples

Illustrative examples

Terminology & mappings

Alternate terms

Mapped taxonomies

Attack patterns

Frequently asked questions

What is CWE-359?

What CVEs are caused by CWE-359?

How do you prevent CWE-359?

How is CWE-359 detected?

What are the consequences of CWE-359?

Is CWE-359 actively exploited?

References

Stay ahead of CWE-359

Real-world CVEs

Overview

Real-world CVEs

Common consequences

How it happens

When it is introduced

Applies to

How to prevent it

How to detect it

Architecture or Design Review

Automated Static Analysis

Automated Static Analysis

Code examples

Illustrative examples

Related weaknesses

Parent

Terminology & mappings

Alternate terms

Mapped taxonomies

Attack patterns

Frequently asked questions

What is CWE-359?

What CVEs are caused by CWE-359?

How do you prevent CWE-359?

How is CWE-359 detected?

What are the consequences of CWE-359?

Is CWE-359 actively exploited?

References

Stay ahead of CWE-359