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Weakness · ClassCWE-74

CWE-74: Improper Neutralization of Special Elements in Output Used by a Downstream Component ('Injection')

Likelihood of exploit: HighKEV-linkedClass

As of 2026-10-05, CWE-74 (Injection) underlies 71 CVEs tracked by Threadlinqs, 1 of them in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog, and is cited by 15 tracked threats. MITRE rates its likelihood of exploit as High.

CVEs
71Mapped to CWE-74
CISA KEV
1Exploited in the wild
Critical
10CVSS v3 critical CVEs
Threats
15Tracked campaigns citing it
Likelihood
HighMITRE likelihood of exploit

Last updated:

What is CWE-74?

The product constructs all or part of a command, data structure, or record using externally-influenced input from an upstream component, but it does not neutralize or incorrectly neutralizes special elements that could modify how it is parsed or interpreted when it is sent to a downstream component.

CWE-74 is a class-level weakness in MITRE’s Common Weakness Enumeration, with a MITRE likelihood of exploit of High. Applicable platforms: Language: Not Language-Specific.

Source: MITRE CWE (CWE-74 definition, reproduced verbatim). Counts and linkage below are Threadlinqs data.

Consequences

  • Confidentiality — Read Application Data. Many injection attacks involve the disclosure of important information -- in terms of both data sensitivity and usefulness in further exploitation.
  • Access Control — Bypass Protection Mechanism. In some cases, injectable code controls authentication; this may lead to a remote vulnerability.
  • Other — Alter Execution Logic. Injection attacks are characterized by the ability to significantly change the flow of a given process, and in some cases, to the execution of arbitrary code.
  • Integrity, Other — Other. Data injection attacks lead to loss of data integrity in nearly all cases as the control-plane data injected is always incidental to data recall or writing.
  • Non-Repudiation — Hide Activities. Often the actions performed by injected control code are unlogged.

Source: MITRE CWE, common consequences.

How CWE-74 is exploited in the wild

Threadlinqs maps 71 CVEs to CWE-74, published between 2024-01-16 and 2026-10-04. 1 is listed in CISA’s Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog, the authoritative record of exploitation in the wild. By CVSS v3 severity the set splits into 10 critical, 37 high, 23 medium. The highest EPSS score in the set is 94.3% (CVE-2023-22527), the modelled probability of exploitation in the next 30 days. 15 tracked threats reference CWE-74 directly or through a CVE it covers; the most recent is “AI-Powered Cyber Attacks: Emerging TTPs Across Phishing, Deepfake BEC, Polymorphic Malware, and Prompt Injection” (2026-09-26). Affected products concentrate in SourceCodester (15), itsourcecode (11), code-projects (9), among 29 vendors in total.

Vulnerabilities (CVEs)

Showing 40 of 71 CVEs mapped to CWE-74, CISA KEV first, then by CVSS score.

Affected vendors

Threat activity

15 tracked threats cite CWE-74:

Mitigations

  • Requirements: Programming languages and supporting technologies might be chosen which are not subject to these issues.
  • Implementation: Utilize an appropriate mix of allowlist and denylist parsing to filter control-plane syntax from all input.

Source: MITRE CWE, potential mitigations.

Detection methods (MITRE CWE)

  • Automated Static Analysis (effectiveness: High): 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.)

Source: MITRE CWE, detection methods. Threadlinqs detection rules for the threats above are Blue tier and higher.