CWE-1319: Improper Protection against Electromagnetic Fault Injection (EM-FI)

Definição

What is CWE-1319?

This vulnerability occurs when a hardware device lacks sufficient shielding against electromagnetic interference, allowing attackers to disrupt its internal operations. By inducing targeted electromagnetic pulses, an attacker can force the device to malfunction, potentially bypassing security checks or leaking sensitive data.

Electromagnetic Fault Injection (EM-FI) is a physical attack where an attacker uses a controlled electromagnetic pulse near a device's integrated circuit. This pulse induces unexpected currents in the chip's wiring, temporarily disrupting normal execution. This manipulation can force the hardware into an erroneous state, allowing an attacker to influence its behavior during critical security operations. Successful EM-FI attacks can have severe consequences, including bypassing secure boot or debug locks, altering program execution to skip authentication, leaking cryptographic keys or other secrets from memory, and corrupting the output of security-critical components like hardware random number generators. These faults are highly localized and precise, often requiring specialized equipment but posing a significant threat to devices accessible to an attacker with physical access.

Impacto no mundo real

Real-world CVEs caused by CWE-1319

CVE-2020-27211

Chain: microcontroller system-on-chip uses a register value stored in flash to set product protection state on the memory bus and does not contain protection against fault injection (CWE-1319) which leads to an incorrect initialization of the memory bus (CWE-1419) causing the product to be in an unprotected state.

Como os atacantes a exploram

Trajeto do atacante passo a passo

1
Identificar um caminho de código que trata input não confiável sem validação.
2
Criar um payload que explora o comportamento inseguro — injeção, traversal, overflow ou abuso de lógica.
3
Entregar o payload através de um pedido normal e observar a reação da aplicação.
4
Iterar até que a resposta exponha dados, execute código do atacante ou escale privilégios.

Exemplo de código vulnerável

Vulnerable pseudo

A MITRE não publicou um exemplo de código para este CWE. O padrão abaixo é ilustrativo — consulte os Recursos para referências canónicas.

Vulnerável pseudo

// Example pattern — see MITRE for the canonical references.
function handleRequest(input) {
  // Untrusted input flows directly into the sensitive sink.
  return executeUnsafe(input);
}

Exemplo de código seguro

Secure pseudo

Seguro 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.

Lista de verificação de prevenção

How to prevent CWE-1319

Architecture and Design / Implementation - 1. Redundancy - By replicating critical operations and comparing the two outputs can help indicate whether a fault has been injected. - 2. Error detection and correction codes - Gay, Mael, et al. proposed a new scheme that not only detects faults injected by a malicious adversary but also automatically corrects single nibble/byte errors introduced by low-multiplicity faults. - 3. Fail by default coding - When checking conditions (switch or if) check all possible cases and fail by default because the default case in a switch (or the else part of a cascaded if-else-if construct) is used for dealing with the last possible (and valid) value without checking. This is prone to fault injection because this alternative is easily selected as a result of potential data manipulation [REF-1141]. - 4. Random Behavior - adding random delays before critical operations, so that timing is not predictable. - 5. Program Flow Integrity Protection - The program flow can be secured by integrating run-time checking aiming at detecting control flow inconsistencies. One such example is tagging the source code to indicate the points not to be bypassed [REF-1147]. - 6. Sensors - Usage of sensors can detect variations in voltage and current. - 7. Shields - physical barriers to protect the chips from malicious manipulation.

Sinais de deteção

How to detect CWE-1319

SAST High

Executar análise estática (SAST) na base de código à procura do padrão inseguro no fluxo de dados.

DAST Moderate

Executar testes dinâmicos de segurança de aplicações (DAST) contra o endpoint em execução.

Runtime Moderate

Monitorizar os registos em tempo de execução para traços de exceção invulgares, input malformado ou tentativas de contornar a autorização.

Code review Moderate

Revisão de código: sinalizar qualquer novo código que trate input desta superfície sem usar os ajudantes validados do framework.

CWE-1319

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Perguntas frequentes

Frequently asked questions

O que é o CWE-1319?

This vulnerability occurs when a hardware device lacks sufficient shielding against electromagnetic interference, allowing attackers to disrupt its internal operations. By inducing targeted electromagnetic pulses, an attacker can force the device to malfunction, potentially bypassing security checks or leaking sensitive data.

Qual a gravidade do CWE-1319?

A MITRE não publicou uma classificação de probabilidade de exploração para esta fraqueza. Trate-a como impacto médio até o seu modelo de ameaças provar o contrário.

Que linguagens ou plataformas são afetadas pelo CWE-1319?

MITRE lists the following affected platforms: Not OS-Specific, Not Architecture-Specific, System on Chip, Microcontroller Hardware, Memory Hardware, Power Management Hardware, Processor Hardware, Test/Debug Hardware.

Como posso prevenir o CWE-1319?

- 1. Redundancy - By replicating critical operations and comparing the two outputs can help indicate whether a fault has been injected. - 2. Error detection and correction codes - Gay, Mael, et al. proposed a new scheme that not only detects faults injected by a malicious adversary but also automatically corrects single nibble/byte errors introduced by low-multiplicity faults. - 3. Fail by default coding - When checking conditions (switch or if) check all possible cases and fail by default…

Como é que o Plexicus deteta e corrige o CWE-1319?

O motor SAST do Plexicus correlaciona a assinatura de fluxo de dados do CWE-1319 em cada commit. Quando é encontrada uma correspondência, o nosso agente Codex Remedium abre um PR de correção com o código corrigido, testes e um resumo de uma linha para o revisor.

Onde posso saber mais sobre o CWE-1319?

A MITRE publica a definição canónica em https://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/1319.html. Pode também consultar a documentação da OWASP e do NIST para orientações adjacentes.

Fraquezas relacionadas

Weaknesses related to CWE-1319

CWE-693 Pai

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Improper Protection against Electromagnetic Fault Injection (EM-FI)

What is CWE-1319?

Real-world CVEs caused by CWE-1319

Trajeto do atacante passo a passo

Vulnerable pseudo

Secure pseudo

How to prevent CWE-1319

How to detect CWE-1319

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

Frequently asked questions

Weaknesses related to CWE-1319

Protection Mechanism Failure

Inadequate Detection or Handling of Adversarial Input Perturbations in Automated Recognition Mechanism

Semiconductor Defects in Hardware Logic with Security-Sensitive Implications

Incorrect Selection of Fuse Values

Product Released in Non-Release Configuration

Missing Protection Against Hardware Reverse Engineering Using Integrated Circuit (IC) Imaging Techniques

Public Key Re-Use for Signing both Debug and Production Code

Missing Support for Security Features in On-chip Fabrics or Buses

Missing Immutable Root of Trust in Hardware

Further reading

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Sample evidence handover

Server-Side Request Forgery in `webhooks/receiver`