CWE-1384: Improper Handling of Physical or Environmental Conditions
Description
The product does not properly handle unexpected physical or environmental conditions that occur naturally or are artificially induced.
Hardware products are typically only guaranteed to behave correctly within certain physical limits or environmental conditions. Such products cannot necessarily control the physical or external conditions to which they are subjected. However, the inability to handle such conditions can undermine a product's security. For example, an unexpected physical or environmental condition may cause the flipping of a bit that is used for an authentication decision. This unexpected condition could occur naturally or be induced artificially by an adversary. Physical or environmental conditions of concern are: Atmospheric characteristics: extreme temperature ranges, etc. Interference: electromagnetic interference (EMI), radio frequency interference (RFI), etc. Assorted light sources: white light, ultra-violet light (UV), lasers, infrared (IR), etc. Power variances: under-voltages, over-voltages, under-current, over-current, etc. Clock variances: glitching, overclocking, clock stretching, etc. Component aging and degradation Materials manipulation: focused ion beams (FIB), etc. Exposure to radiation: x-rays, cosmic radiation, etc.
- Abstraction
- ClassAn abstract weakness, independent of any specific language or technology.
- Likelihood of exploit
- Not rated by MITRE
- Status
- Incomplete
Common consequences
- ConfidentialityIntegrityAvailability
Varies by Context; Unexpected State
Consequences of this weakness are highly dependent on the role of affected components within the larger product.
Potential mitigations
- Requirements
In requirements, be specific about expectations for how the product will perform when it exceeds physical and environmental boundary conditions, e.g., by shutting down.
- Architecture and DesignImplementation
Where possible, include independent components that can detect excess environmental conditions and have the capability to shut down the product.
- Architecture and DesignImplementation
Where possible, use shielding or other materials that can increase the adversary's workload and reduce the likelihood of being able to successfully trigger a security-related failure.
Related weaknesses
Parent weaknesses
CAPEC attack patterns that exploit it
CWE 4.20 links no CAPEC attack pattern to this weakness.