CWE-1311 Base Draft

Improper Translation of Security Attributes by Fabric Bridge

This vulnerability occurs when a hardware bridge incorrectly converts security attributes between different fabric protocols, potentially changing a transaction's identity from trusted to untrusted…

Definition

What is CWE-1311?

Hardware systems often integrate components that use different communication protocols (like AHB, AXI, or OCP), requiring bridges to translate between them. These protocols use dedicated signals (such as HPROT, AxPROT, or MReqInfo) to carry critical security metadata—including the initiating controller's hardware identity, privilege level, and transaction type. The bridge must accurately preserve this security context during conversion. When the bridge misinterprets or incorrectly maps these security attributes, it can fundamentally alter a transaction's trust level. An untrusted initiator might be incorrectly labeled as trusted, or vice versa, leading to severe consequences like privilege escalation, access control bypass, or denial of service by allowing unauthorized access to protected system resources.

Auswirkungen in der Praxis

Real-world CVEs caused by CWE-1311

Bisher sind in MITREs Katalog keine öffentlichen CVE-Referenzen mit dieser CWE verknüpft.

Wie Angreifer es ausnutzen

Angreiferpfad Schritt für Schritt

1
Identifiziere einen Codepfad, der nicht vertrauenswürdige Eingaben ohne Validierung verarbeitet.
2
Erzeuge eine Payload, die das unsichere Verhalten auslöst — Injection, Traversal, Overflow oder Logik-Missbrauch.
3
Liefere die Payload über einen normalen Request aus und beobachte die Reaktion der Anwendung.
4
Iteriere, bis die Antwort Daten preisgibt, Angreifer-Code ausführt oder Berechtigungen eskaliert.

Verwundbares Codebeispiel

Vulnerable Verilog

The bridge interfaces between OCP and AHB end points. OCP uses MReqInfo signal to indicate security attributes, whereas AHB uses HPROT signal to indicate the security attributes. The width of MReqInfo can be customized as needed. In this example, MReqInfo is 5-bits wide and carries the privilege level of the OCP controller. The values 5'h11, 5'h10, 5'h0F, 5'h0D, 5'h0C, 5'h0B, 5'h09, 5'h08, 5'h04, and 5'h02 in MReqInfo indicate that the request is coming from a privileged state of the OCP bus controller. Values 5'h1F, 5'h0E, and 5'h00 indicate untrusted, privilege state. Though HPROT is a 5-bit signal, we only consider the lower, two bits in this example. HPROT values 2'b00 and 2'b10 are considered trusted, and 2'b01 and 2'b11 are considered untrusted. The OCP2AHB bridge is expected to translate trusted identities on the controller side to trusted identities on the responder side. Similarly, it is expected to translate untrusted identities on the controller side to untrusted identities on the responder side.

Verwundbar Verilog

module ocp2ahb
 ( 

```
   ahb_hprot, 
   ocp_mreqinfo 
 ); 
 output [1:0] ahb_hprot; // output is 2 bit signal for AHB HPROT
 input [4:0] ocp_mreqinfo; // input is 5 bit signal from OCP MReqInfo
 wire [6:0] p0_mreqinfo_o_temp; // OCP signal that transmits hardware identity of bus controller
 wire y;
 reg [1:0] ahb_hprot;
 // hardware identity of bus controller is in bits 5:1 of p0_mreqinfo_o_temp signal
 assign p0_mreqinfo_o_temp[6:0] = {1'b0, ocp_mreqinfo[4:0], y};
 always @*
 begin
   case (p0_mreqinfo_o_temp[4:2])
  	 000: ahb_hprot = 2'b11; // OCP MReqInfo to AHB HPROT mapping
  	 001: ahb_hprot = 2'b00;
  	 010: ahb_hprot = 2'b00;
  	 011: ahb_hprot = 2'b01;
  	 100: ahb_hprot = 2'b00;
  	 101: ahb_hprot = 2'b00;
  	 110: ahb_hprot = 2'b10;
  	 111: ahb_hprot = 2'b00;
   endcase
 end
 endmodule

Sicheres Codebeispiel

Secure pseudo

Sicher pseudo

// Validate, sanitize, or use a safe API before reaching the sink.
function handleRequest(input) {
  const safe = validateAndEscape(input);
  return executeWithGuards(safe);
}

What changed: the unsafe sink is replaced (or the input is validated/escaped) so the same payload no longer triggers the weakness.

Präventions-Checkliste

How to prevent CWE-1311

Architecture and Design The translation must map signals in such a way that untrusted agents cannot map to trusted agents or vice-versa.
Implementation Ensure that the translation maps signals in such a way that untrusted agents cannot map to trusted agents or vice-versa.

Erkennungssignale

How to detect CWE-1311

SAST High

Führe statische Analyse (SAST) auf der Codebasis aus und suche im Datenfluss nach dem unsicheren Muster.

DAST Moderate

Führe dynamische Application-Security-Tests gegen den Live-Endpoint aus.

Runtime Moderate

Beobachte Runtime-Logs auf ungewöhnliche Exception-Traces, fehlerhafte Eingaben oder Versuche, Autorisierung zu umgehen.

Code review Moderate

Code Review: Markiere jeden neuen Code, der Eingaben von dieser Oberfläche ohne validierte Framework-Helper verarbeitet.

CWE-1311

Don't catalog this weakness. Prove it's reachable.

Plexicus turns CWE catalogs into evidence: every CWE-pattern is matched against your real code graph, reach is proven on a sandbox clone, and verified findings ship as reviewed PRs.

Request AI Swarm Pentest

Häufig gestellte Fragen

Frequently asked questions

Was ist CWE-1311?

Wie gravierend ist CWE-1311?

MITRE hat für diese Schwachstelle keine Exploit-Wahrscheinlichkeit veröffentlicht. Behandle sie als mittlere Auswirkung, bis dein Threat Model anderes belegt.

Welche Sprachen oder Plattformen sind von CWE-1311 betroffen?

MITRE lists the following affected platforms: Verilog, VHDL, Not Technology-Specific.

Wie kann ich CWE-1311 verhindern?

The translation must map signals in such a way that untrusted agents cannot map to trusted agents or vice-versa. Ensure that the translation maps signals in such a way that untrusted agents cannot map to trusted agents or vice-versa.

Wie erkennt und behebt Plexicus CWE-1311?

Die SAST-Engine von Plexicus erkennt die Datenfluss-Signatur von CWE-1311 bei jedem Commit. Bei einem Treffer öffnet unser Codex-Remedium-Agent einen Fix-PR mit korrigiertem Code, Tests und einer einzeiligen Zusammenfassung für den Reviewer.

Wo erfahre ich mehr über CWE-1311?

MITRE veröffentlicht die kanonische Definition unter https://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/1311.html. Für ergänzende Hinweise kannst du auch die OWASP- und NIST-Dokumentation heranziehen.

Verwandte Schwachstellen

Weaknesses related to CWE-1311

CWE-284 Parent

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Plexicus ist Proof-Driven AppSec: validierte Funde, kontextuelles Verständnis und geprüfte Remediation — in Evidenz verankert, mit Ihnen gescoped.

Pentest buchen

Improper Translation of Security Attributes by Fabric Bridge

What is CWE-1311?

Real-world CVEs caused by CWE-1311

Angreiferpfad Schritt für Schritt

Vulnerable Verilog

Secure pseudo

How to prevent CWE-1311

How to detect CWE-1311

Don't catalog this weakness. Prove it's reachable.

Frequently asked questions

Weaknesses related to CWE-1311

Improper Access Control

On-Chip Debug and Test Interface With Improper Access Control

Insufficient Granularity of Access Control

Improper Restriction of Write-Once Bit Fields

Improper Prevention of Lock Bit Modification

Security-Sensitive Hardware Controls with Missing Lock Bit Protection

CPU Hardware Not Configured to Support Exclusivity of Write and Execute Operations

Improper Access Control Applied to Mirrored or Aliased Memory Regions

Improper Restriction of Security Token Assignment

Further reading

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Sample evidence handover

Server-Side Request Forgery in `webhooks/receiver`