Weakness · High
CWE-1245: Improper Finite State Machines (FSMs) in Hardware Logic
What it is
Faulty finite state machines (FSMs) in the hardware logic allow an attacker to put the system in an undefined state, to cause a denial of service (DoS) or gain privileges on the victim's system.
- Severity (our rating)
- High
- Likelihood of exploit
- Not rated by MITRE
- Introduced during
- Architecture and Design, Implementation
- Exploited in the wild
- No CVE in CISA's catalog
In more detail
The functionality and security of the system heavily depend on the implementation of FSMs. FSMs can be used to indicate the current security state of the system. Lots of secure data operations and data transfers rely on the state reported by the FSM.
What an attacker can do
- Unexpected State (Availability, Access Control)
- DoS: Crash, Exit, or Restart (Availability, Access Control)
- DoS: Instability (Availability, Access Control)
- Gain Privileges or Assume Identity (Availability, Access Control)
How to prevent it
Architecture and Design
- Define all possible states and handle all unused states through default statements. Ensure that system defaults to a secure state.
H2 Security
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Start freeSource: MITRE Common Weakness Enumeration, CWE version 4.19.1. CWE is a trademark of The MITRE Corporation.