Violation of Secure Design Principles
Draft Class
Structure: Simple
Description
This weakness occurs when a system's architecture or design fails to follow fundamental security principles, creating a flawed foundation that can lead to multiple vulnerabilities.
A design that ignores secure principles, like least privilege or defense in depth, acts as a blueprint for insecurity. It often introduces specific security flaws directly and makes it easier for developers to accidentally create related bugs during coding, as they are building on an inherently weak structure. Fixing these foundational design problems is typically costly and complex because the insecure assumptions are woven throughout the entire codebase. Addressing them may require significant architectural changes, unlike patching a single coding error, which makes prevention through secure design reviews critical early in the development lifecycle.
Common Consequences 1
Scope: Other
Impact: Other
Demonstrative Examples 6
ID : DX-164
Switches may revert their functionality to that of hubs when the table used to map ARP information to the switch interface overflows, such as when under a spoofing attack. This results in traffic being broadcast to an eavesdropper, instead of being sent only on the relevant switch interface. To mitigate this type of problem, the developer could limit the number of ARP entries that can be recorded for a given switch interface, while other interfaces may keep functioning normally. Configuration options can be provided on the appropriate actions to be taken in case of a detected failure, but safe defaults should be used.ID : DX-165
The IPSEC specification is complex, which resulted in bugs, partial implementations, and incompatibilities between vendors.ID : DX-166
When executable library files are used on web servers, which is common in PHP applications, the developer might perform an access check in any user-facing executable, and omit the access check from the library file itself. By directly requesting the library file (Direct Request ('Forced Browsing')), an attacker can bypass this access check.ID : DX-167
Single sign-on technology is intended to make it easier for users to access multiple resources or domains without having to authenticate each time. While this is highly convenient for the user and attempts to address problems with psychological acceptability, it also means that a compromise of a user's credentials can provide immediate access to all other resources or domains.ID : DX-168
The design of TCP relies on the secrecy of Initial Sequence Numbers (ISNs), as originally covered in CVE-1999-0077 [REF-542]. If ISNs can be guessed (due to predictability, Use of Insufficiently Random Values) or sniffed (due to lack of encryption during transmission, Cleartext Storage of Sensitive Information), then an attacker can hijack or spoof connections. Many TCP implementations have had variations of this problem over the years, including CVE-2004-0641, CVE-2002-1463, CVE-2001-0751, CVE-2001-0328, CVE-2001-0288, CVE-2001-0163, CVE-2001-0162, CVE-2000-0916, and CVE-2000-0328.ID : DX-169
The "SweynTooth" vulnerabilities in Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) software development kits (SDK) were found to affect multiple Bluetooth System-on-Chip (SoC) manufacturers. These SoCs were used by many products such as medical devices, Smart Home devices, wearables, and other IoT devices. [REF-1314] [REF-1315]Observed Examples 4
CVE-2019-6260Baseboard Management Controller (BMC) device implements Advanced High-performance Bus (AHB) bridges that do not require authentication for arbitrary read and write access to the BMC's physical address space from the host, and possibly the network [REF-1138].
CVE-2007-5277The failure of connection attempts in a web browser resets DNS pin restrictions. An attacker can then bypass the same origin policy by rebinding a domain name to a different IP address. This was an attempt to "fail functional."
CVE-2006-7142Hard-coded cryptographic key stored in executable program.
CVE-2007-0408Server does not properly validate client certificates when reusing cached connections.
References 6
The Protection of Information in Computer Systems
Jerome H. Saltzer and Michael D. Schroeder
Proceedings of the IEEE 63
09-1975
ID: REF-196
Design Principles
Sean Barnum and Michael Gegick
19-09-2005
ID: REF-546
RFC: 793, TRANSMISSION CONTROL PROTOCOL
Jon Postel, Editor
Information Sciences Institute
09-1981
https://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc793.txt(2023-04-07)
ID: REF-542
CVE-2019-6260: Gaining control of BMC from the host processor
Stewart Smith
2019
https://www.flamingspork.com/blog/2019/01/23/cve-2019-6260:-gaining-control-of-bmc-from-the-host-processor/(2025-07-29)
ID: REF-1138
ICS Alert (ICS-ALERT-20-063-01): SweynTooth Vulnerabilities
ICS-CERT
04-03-2020
ID: REF-1314
Unleashing Mayhem over Bluetooth Low Energy
Matheus E. Garbelini, Sudipta Chattopadhyay, Chundong Wang, Singapore University of Technology and Design
04-03-2020
ID: REF-1315
Modes of Introduction
Architecture and Design
Implementation
Operation
Related Weaknesses
Taxonomy Mapping
- ISA/IEC 62443
- ISA/IEC 62443
- ISA/IEC 62443
Notes
MaintenanceThe Taxonomy_Mappings to ISA/IEC 62443 were added in CWE 4.10, but they are still under review and might change in future CWE versions. These draft mappings were performed by members of the "Mapping CWE to 62443" subgroup of the CWE-CAPEC ICS/OT Special Interest Group (SIG), and their work is incomplete as of CWE 4.10. The mappings are included to facilitate discussion and review by the broader ICS/OT community, and they are likely to change in future CWE versions.