Missing Support for Integrity Check

Draft Base
Structure: Simple
Description

The product uses a transmission protocol that does not include a mechanism for verifying the integrity of the data during transmission, such as a checksum.

Extended Description

If integrity check values or "checksums" are omitted from a protocol, there is no way of determining if data has been corrupted in transmission. The lack of checksum functionality in a protocol removes the first application-level check of data that can be used. The end-to-end philosophy of checks states that integrity checks should be performed at the lowest level that they can be completely implemented. Excluding further sanity checks and input validation performed by applications, the protocol's checksum is the most important level of checksum, since it can be performed more completely than at any previous level and takes into account entire messages, as opposed to single packets.

Common Consequences 2
Scope: IntegrityOther

Impact: Other

Data that is parsed and used may be corrupted.

Scope: Non-RepudiationOther

Impact: Hide ActivitiesOther

Without a checksum it is impossible to determine if any changes have been made to the data after it was sent.

Potential Mitigations 2
Phase: Architecture and Design
Add an appropriately sized checksum to the protocol, ensuring that data received may be simply validated before it is parsed and used.
Phase: Implementation
Ensure that the checksums present in the protocol design are properly implemented and added to each message before it is sent.
Demonstrative Examples 1
In this example, a request packet is received, and privileged information is sent to the requester:

Code Example:

Bad
Java
java
The response containing secret data has no integrity check associated with it, allowing an attacker to alter the message without detection.
References 2
The CLASP Application Security Process
Secure Software, Inc.
2005
ID: REF-18
24 Deadly Sins of Software Security
Michael Howard, David LeBlanc, and John Viega
McGraw-Hill
2010
ID: REF-44
Likelihood of Exploit

Medium

Applicable Platforms
Languages:
Not Language-Specific : Undetermined
Modes of Introduction
Architecture and Design
Implementation
Taxonomy Mapping
  • CLASP
  • ISA/IEC 62443
  • ISA/IEC 62443
  • ISA/IEC 62443
  • ISA/IEC 62443
  • ISA/IEC 62443
  • ISA/IEC 62443