View: Weaknesses in the 2021 CWE Most Important Hardware Weaknesses List
Stable
Type: Explicit
Objective
CWE entries in this view are listed in the 2021 CWE Most Important Hardware Weaknesses List, as determined by the Hardware CWE Special Interest Group (HW CWE SIG).
Audience
| Type | Description |
|---|---|
| Hardware Designers | By following this list, hardware designers and implementers are able to significantly reduce the number of weaknesses that occur in their products. |
| Product Customers | Customers can use the weaknesses in this view in order to formulate independent evidence of a claim by a product vendor to have eliminated / mitigated the most dangerous weaknesses. |
| Educators | Educators can use this view to focus curriculum on the most important hardware weaknesses. |
Membership
| ID | Name | Description |
|---|---|---|
| CWE-1189 | Improper Isolation of Shared Resources on System-on-a-Chip (SoC) | This vulnerability occurs when a System-on-a-Chip (SoC) fails to properly separate shared hardware resources between secure (trusted) and non-secure (untrusted) components. |
| CWE-1191 | On-Chip Debug and Test Interface With Improper Access Control | This vulnerability occurs when a hardware chip's debug or test interface (like JTAG) lacks proper access controls. Without correct authorization checks, unauthorized users can read or modify sensitive internal registers and bypass the chip's built-in security protections. |
| CWE-1231 | Improper Prevention of Lock Bit Modification | This vulnerability occurs when hardware or firmware uses a lock bit to protect critical system registers or memory regions, but fails to properly prevent that lock bit from being changed after it has been enabled. This design flaw allows attackers to bypass hardware-enforced security restrictions. |
| CWE-1233 | Security-Sensitive Hardware Controls with Missing Lock Bit Protection | This vulnerability occurs when a hardware device uses a lock bit to protect critical configuration registers, but the lock fails to prevent writes to all registers that can alter the protected system settings. Essentially, the security mechanism is incomplete, allowing software to bypass it and modify sensitive hardware configurations. |
| CWE-1240 | Use of a Cryptographic Primitive with a Risky Implementation | This weakness occurs when a product uses a custom, unverified, or non-compliant implementation of a cryptographic algorithm instead of a trusted, standard solution. |
| CWE-1244 | Internal Asset Exposed to Unsafe Debug Access Level or State | This vulnerability occurs when a system's debug or test interface supports multiple access levels, but an internal asset is incorrectly assigned a permissive debug access level. This mistake allows untrusted debug agents to access sensitive internal assets they should not be able to reach. |
| CWE-1256 | Improper Restriction of Software Interfaces to Hardware Features | This vulnerability occurs when a system's software interfaces to hardware features—like power, clock, or performance management—are not properly locked down. This allows attackers to misuse these interfaces from software to tamper with hardware memory or registers, or to gather sensitive data by observing physical side effects, without needing physical access to the device. |
| CWE-1260 | Improper Handling of Overlap Between Protected Memory Ranges | This vulnerability occurs when a system incorrectly allows different memory protection ranges to overlap. This flaw can let attackers bypass security controls and access restricted memory areas. |
| CWE-1272 | Sensitive Information Uncleared Before Debug/Power State Transition | This vulnerability occurs when a device changes its power mode or enters a debug state but fails to wipe sensitive data that should become inaccessible after the transition. |
| CWE-1274 | Improper Access Control for Volatile Memory Containing Boot Code | This vulnerability occurs when a system's secure-boot process loads bootloader code into volatile memory (like DRAM or SRAM) but fails to properly lock down that memory region afterward. Without strong access controls, an attacker can modify the boot code in memory, bypassing secure boot and running malicious software. |
| CWE-1277 | Firmware Not Updateable | This vulnerability occurs when a hardware product lacks a mechanism for users to install firmware updates, leaving known security flaws permanently unpatched. |
| CWE-1300 | Improper Protection of Physical Side Channels | This vulnerability occurs when a hardware device lacks adequate safeguards against physical side-channel attacks. Attackers can exploit measurable patterns in power usage, electromagnetic radiation, or even sound emissions to uncover sensitive information like encryption keys. |
Mapping Notes
Usage: Prohibited
Reasons: View
Rationale:
This entry is a View. Views are not weaknesses and therefore inappropriate to describe the root causes of vulnerabilities.
Comment:
Use this View or other Views to search and navigate for the appropriate weakness.