CWE-1298 Base Borrador

Hardware Logic Contains Race Conditions

A hardware race condition occurs when security-critical logic circuits receive signals at slightly different times, creating temporary glitches that can bypass system protections.

Definición

What is CWE-1298?

A hardware race condition occurs when security-critical logic circuits receive signals at slightly different times, creating temporary glitches that can bypass system protections.
In hardware design, race conditions happen when signals from the same source take different paths through logic gates and arrive at slightly different times. This timing mismatch can cause a gate's output to flicker into an incorrect state—a glitch—before settling correctly. These glitches, though often brief, create a window where the hardware operates in an unintended state. When these timing errors occur in security-sensitive circuits like access control modules or cryptographic state machines, they become critical vulnerabilities. Attackers can deliberately trigger or amplify these glitches to bypass authentication, escalate privileges, or leak protected data, effectively undermining the hardware's security guarantees.
Impacto en el mundo real

Real-world CVEs caused by CWE-1298

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

    The code below shows a 2x1 multiplexor using logic gates. Though the code shown below results in the minimum gate solution, it is disjoint and causes glitches.

  2. 2

    The buggy line of code, commented above, results in signal 'z' periodically changing to an unwanted state. Thus, any logic that references signal 'z' may access it at a time when it is in this unwanted state. This line should be replaced with the line shown below in the Good Code Snippet which results in signal 'z' remaining in a continuous, known, state. Reference for the above code, along with waveforms for simulation can be found in the references below.

  3. 3

    This line of code removes the glitch in signal z.

  4. 4

    The example code is taken from the DMA (Direct Memory Access) module of the buggy OpenPiton SoC of HACK@DAC'21. The DMA contains a finite-state machine (FSM) for accessing the permissions using the physical memory protection (PMP) unit. PMP provides secure regions of physical memory against unauthorized access. It allows an operating system or a hypervisor to define a series of physical memory regions and then set permissions for those regions, such as read, write, and execute permissions. When a user tries to access a protected memory area (e.g., through DMA), PMP checks the access of a PMP address (e.g., pmpaddr_i) against its configuration (pmpcfg_i). If the access violates the defined permissions (e.g., CTRL_ABORT), the PMP can trigger a fault or an interrupt. This access check is implemented in the pmp parametrized module in the below code snippet. The below code assumes that the state of the pmpaddr_i and pmpcfg_i signals will not change during the different DMA states (i.e., CTRL_IDLE to CTRL_DONE) while processing a DMA request (via dma_ctrl_reg). The DMA state machine is implemented using a case statement (not shown in the code snippet).

  5. 5

    However, the above code [REF-1394] allows the values of pmpaddr_i and pmpcfg_i to be changed through DMA's input ports. This causes a race condition and will enable attackers to access sensitive addresses that the configuration is not associated with. Attackers can initialize the DMA access process (CTRL_IDLE) using pmpcfg_i for a non-privileged PMP address (pmpaddr_i). Then during the loading state (CTRL_LOAD), attackers can replace the non-privileged address in pmpaddr_i with a privileged address without the requisite authorized access configuration. To fix this issue (see [REF-1395]), the value of the pmpaddr_i and pmpcfg_i signals should be stored in local registers (pmpaddr_reg and pmpcfg_reg at the start of the DMA access process and the pmp module should reference those registers instead of the signals directly. The values of the registers can only be updated at the start (CTRL_IDLE) or the end (CTRL_DONE) of the DMA access process, which prevents attackers from changing the PMP address in the middle of the DMA access process.

Ejemplo de código vulnerable

Vulnerable Verilog

The code below shows a 2x1 multiplexor using logic gates. Though the code shown below results in the minimum gate solution, it is disjoint and causes glitches.

Vulnerable Verilog 
// 2x1 Multiplexor using logic-gates

 module glitchEx(

```
   input wire in0, in1, sel,
   output wire z
 );
 wire not_sel;
 wire and_out1, and_out2;
 assign not_sel = ~sel;
 assign and_out1 = not_sel & in0;
 assign and_out2 = sel & in1;
 // Buggy line of code:
 assign z = and_out1 | and_out2; // glitch in signal z
 endmodule
Ejemplo de código seguro

Secure Verilog

The buggy line of code, commented above, results in signal 'z' periodically changing to an unwanted state. Thus, any logic that references signal 'z' may access it at a time when it is in this unwanted state. This line should be replaced with the line shown below in the Good Code Snippet which results in signal 'z' remaining in a continuous, known, state. Reference for the above code, along with waveforms for simulation can be found in the references below.

Seguro Verilog 
assign z <= and_out1 or and_out2 or (in0 and in1);
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-1298

  • Architecture and Design Adopting design practices that encourage designers to recognize and eliminate race conditions, such as Karnaugh maps, could result in the decrease in occurrences of race conditions.
  • Implementation Logic redundancy can be implemented along security critical paths to prevent race conditions. To avoid metastability, it is a good practice in general to default to a secure state in which access is not given to untrusted agents.
Señales de detección

How to detect CWE-1298

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-1298 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-1298?

A hardware race condition occurs when security-critical logic circuits receive signals at slightly different times, creating temporary glitches that can bypass system protections.

¿Qué gravedad tiene CWE-1298?

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-1298?

MITRE lists the following affected platforms: Verilog, VHDL, System on Chip.

¿Cómo puedo prevenir CWE-1298?

Adopting design practices that encourage designers to recognize and eliminate race conditions, such as Karnaugh maps, could result in the decrease in occurrences of race conditions. Logic redundancy can be implemented along security critical paths to prevent race conditions. To avoid metastability, it is a good practice in general to default to a secure state in which access is not given to untrusted agents.

¿Cómo detecta y corrige Plexicus CWE-1298?

El motor SAST de Plexicus detecta la firma de flujo de datos para CWE-1298 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-1298?

MITRE publica la definición canónica en https://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/1298.html. También puedes consultar la documentación de OWASP y NIST para guías relacionadas.

Debilidades relacionadas

Weaknesses related to CWE-1298

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Recursos

Further reading

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