BaseIncomplete

CWE-1245Improper Finite State Machines (FSMs) in Hardware Logic

Category: other

Description

Faulty finite state machines (FSMs) in the hardware logic allow an attacker to put the system in an undefined state, to cause a denial of service (DoS) or gain privileges on the victim's system.

Common consequences· 1

  • Availability / Access Control — Unexpected State, DoS: Crash, Exit, or Restart, DoS: Instability, Gain Privileges or Assume Identity
    Faulty FSM designs that do not account for all states, either through undefined states (left as don't cares) or through incorrect implementation, might lead an attacker to drive the system into an unstable state from which the system cannot recover without a reset, thus causing a DoS. Depending on what the FSM is used for, an attacker might also gain additional privileges to launch further attacks and compromise the security guarantees.

Potential mitigations· 1

  • [Architecture and Design, Implementation]Define all possible states and handle all unused states through default statements. Ensure that system defaults to a secure state.

Related CAPEC attack patterns· 1

CAPEC-74

References

  1. https://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/1245.html

Exploits (incoming)1

TypeTargetConfidenceTier
AttackPatternManipulating Statecapec-74100%live

Related by meaning· 6

Nearest entities by semantic similarity across the cs-graph corpus.

CWE
Hardware Logic Contains Race Conditions
CWE
Semiconductor Defects in Hardware Logic with Security-Sensitive Implications
CWE
Hardware Allows Activation of Test or Debug Logic at Runtime
CWE
Hardware Logic with Insecure De-Synchronization between Control and Data Channels
CWE
Improper Handling of Faults that Lead to Instruction Skips
CWE
Improper Protection Against Voltage and Clock Glitches
Sourced from MITRE CWE 4.20. Curated for EU compliance use cases by Adam Lundqvist, Founder at SQUR.