CWE-1261 Base Borrador

Improper Handling of Single Event Upsets

This vulnerability occurs when hardware logic fails to properly manage single-event upsets (SEUs), which are temporary bit flips caused by environmental factors.

Definición

What is CWE-1261?

This vulnerability occurs when hardware logic fails to properly manage single-event upsets (SEUs), which are temporary bit flips caused by environmental factors.
Modern hardware is becoming more vulnerable to temporary errors called single-event upsets (SEUs). These random bit flips are caused by internal factors like electrical interference or external sources like cosmic radiation. Unlike permanent hardware faults, SEUs are transient but can have serious security consequences if they affect critical system components. When an SEU occurs in a security-sensitive module—such as a privilege manager or cryptographic engine—it can bypass critical protections. For example, a single bit flip might incorrectly elevate a user's privileges or corrupt cryptographic keys. Developers must design hardware logic with detection and correction mechanisms, like parity checks or error-correcting code (ECC) memory, to prevent these temporary failures from compromising system security.
Impacto en el mundo real

Real-world CVEs caused by CWE-1261

Todavía no hay CVEs públicos enlazados a esta CWE en el catálogo de MITRE.

Cómo lo explotan los atacantes

Ruta del atacante paso a paso

  1. 1

    This is an example from [REF-1089]. See the reference for full details of this issue.

  2. 2

    Parity is error detecting but not error correcting.

  3. 3

    In 2016, a security researcher, who was also a patient using a pacemaker, was on an airplane when a bit flip occurred in the pacemaker, likely due to the higher prevalence of cosmic radiation at such heights. The pacemaker was designed to account for bit flips and went into a default safe mode, which still forced the patient to go to a hospital to get it reset. The bit flip also inadvertently enabled the researcher to access the crash file, perform reverse engineering, and detect a hard-coded key. [REF-1101]

Ejemplo de código vulnerable

Vulnerable Other

Parity is error detecting but not error correcting.

Vulnerable Other 
Due to single-event upsets, bits are flipped in memories. As a result, memory-parity checks fail, which results in restart and a temporary denial of service of two to three minutes.
Ejemplo de código seguro

Secure Other

Seguro Other 
Using error-correcting codes could have avoided the restart caused by SEUs.
What changed: the unsafe sink is replaced (or the input is validated/escaped) so the same payload no longer triggers the weakness.
Lista de prevención

How to prevent CWE-1261

  • Architecture and Design Implement triple-modular redundancy around security-sensitive modules.
  • Architecture and Design SEUs mostly affect SRAMs. For SRAMs storing security-critical data, implement Error-Correcting-Codes (ECC) and Address Interleaving.
Señales de detección

How to detect CWE-1261

SAST High

Ejecuta análisis estático (SAST) sobre el código buscando el patrón inseguro en el flujo de datos.

DAST Moderate

Ejecuta pruebas dinámicas de seguridad de aplicaciones (DAST) contra el endpoint en vivo.

Runtime Moderate

Vigila los logs en tiempo de ejecución para detectar trazas de excepción inusuales, entradas malformadas o intentos de bypass de autorización.

Code review Moderate

Revisión de código: marca cualquier código nuevo que maneje entrada desde esta superficie sin usar los helpers validados del framework.

Auto-corrección de Plexicus

Plexicus detecta automáticamente CWE-1261 y abre un PR de corrección en menos de 60 segundos.

Codex Remedium escanea cada commit, identifica esta debilidad concreta y entrega un pull request listo para revisión con el parche. Sin tickets. Sin traspasos.

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Preguntas frecuentes

Frequently asked questions

¿Qué es CWE-1261?

This vulnerability occurs when hardware logic fails to properly manage single-event upsets (SEUs), which are temporary bit flips caused by environmental factors.

¿Qué gravedad tiene CWE-1261?

MITRE no ha publicado una calificación de probabilidad de explotación para esta debilidad. Trátala como de impacto medio hasta que tu modelo de amenazas demuestre lo contrario.

¿Qué lenguajes o plataformas se ven afectados por CWE-1261?

MITRE lists the following affected platforms: Not OS-Specific, Not Architecture-Specific, Not Technology-Specific.

¿Cómo puedo prevenir CWE-1261?

Implement triple-modular redundancy around security-sensitive modules. SEUs mostly affect SRAMs. For SRAMs storing security-critical data, implement Error-Correcting-Codes (ECC) and Address Interleaving.

¿Cómo detecta y corrige Plexicus CWE-1261?

El motor SAST de Plexicus detecta la firma de flujo de datos para CWE-1261 en cada commit. Cuando hay coincidencia, nuestro agente Codex Remedium abre un PR de corrección con el código corregido, las pruebas y un resumen de una línea para el revisor.

¿Dónde puedo aprender más sobre CWE-1261?

MITRE publica la definición canónica en https://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/1261.html. También puedes consultar la documentación de OWASP y NIST para guías relacionadas.

Debilidades relacionadas

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Recursos

Further reading

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