  The quest for the particle nature of dark matter is one of the big open
questions of modern physics. A well motivated candidate for dark matter is the
so-called WIMP - a weakly interacting massive particle. Recently several
theoretically well-motivated models with dark matter candidates in a mass
region below the WIMP mass-scale gained also a lot of interest, theoretically
and experimentally. The CRESST II experiment located at the Gran Sasso
laboratory in Italy is optimised for the detection of the elastic scattering of
these low-mass dark matter particles with ordinary matter. We show the results
obtained with an improved detector setup with increased radio purity and
enhanced background rejection and the results obtained with a dedicated
low-threshold analysis of a single conventional detector module. The limit
achieved is the most stringent limit achieved for direct dark matter
experiments in the mass region below 1.8 GeV/$c^{2}$. We will discuss the
expected performance for new small CRESST-type detectors to be used during the
next data taking phase. We conclude with an outlook of the future potential for
direct dark matter detection using further improved CRESST CaWO$_{4}$ cryogenic
detectors.
