CWE-1473
Weakness Allowed-with-ReviewImproper Expiration of Cached Data
Abstraction: Class · Status: Incomplete
The product uses or supports data in a cache, but it does not properly specify an expiration with a date, time, or time period that is sufficient for the intended security policy of the product or its adminstrators.
Mapping guidance
This CWE Entry is a Class and might have lower-level children that would be more appropriate
Examine children of this entry to see if there is a better fit
Modes of introduction
Developers might inadvertently omit specifying a specific expiration for the data. With some cache mechanisms, this could cause the data to be labeled as having no expiration at all.
Notes
Maintenance · CWE 5.0 · 2026-10-28
This entry was created in CWE 5.0 to address known gaps in CWE coverage. It is not as complete as other new entries that were published in recent years. The CWE Team plans to work with the CWE community to make this entry more complete in later 5.x releases.
Content history
Suggested coverage for DNS cache behavior in JVMs, which led to a demonstrative example.
0 vulnerabilities reference this CWE, most recent first.
No vulnerabilities reference this CWE.
Mitigation
For each type of cached data, determine the best lifetime that balances efficiency provided by the cache with the security implications of the data becoming too stale. Explicitly specify an expiration date or time period.
No CAPEC attack patterns related to this CWE.