Insufficient Technical Documentation

Opis

The product does not contain sufficient technical or engineering documentation (whether on paper or in electronic form) that contains descriptions of all the relevant software/hardware elements of the product, such as its usage, structure, architectural components, interfaces, design, implementation, configuration, operation, etc.

When technical documentation is limited or lacking, products are more difficult to maintain. This indirectly affects security by making it more difficult or time-consuming to find and/or fix vulnerabilities.

When using time-limited or labor-limited third-party/in-house security consulting services (such as threat modeling, vulnerability discovery, or pentesting), insufficient documentation can force those consultants to invest unnecessary time in learning how the product is organized, instead of focusing their expertise on finding the flaws or suggesting effective mitigations.

With respect to hardware design, the lack of a formal, final manufacturer reference can make it difficult or impossible to evaluate the final product, including post-manufacture verification. One cannot ensure that design functionality or operation is within acceptable tolerances, conforms to specifications, and is free from unexpected behavior. Hardware-related documentation may include engineering artifacts such as hardware description language (HDLs), netlists, Gerber files, Bills of Materials, EDA (Electronic Design Automation) tool files, etc.

Skutki

• Other

  Varies by Context; Hide Activities; Reduce Reliability; Quality Degradation; Reduce Maintainability

  Without a method of verification, one cannot be sure that everything only functions as expected.

Zapobieganie

• Documentation, Architecture and Design

  Ensure that design documentation is detailed enough to allow for post-manufacturing verification.

Przykłady podatności

• CVE-2022-3203 A wireless access point manual specifies that the only method of configuration is via web interface (CWE-1059), but there is an undisclosed telnet server that was activated by default (CWE-912).

Słabość nadrzędna

• CWE-710 Improper Adherence to Coding Standards

Słabości podrzędne

• CWE-1053 Missing Documentation for Design
• CWE-1110 Incomplete Design Documentation
• CWE-1111 Incomplete I/O Documentation
• CWE-1112 Incomplete Documentation of Program Execution
• CWE-1118 Insufficient Documentation of Error Handling Techniques

Kiedy powstaje

• Architecture and Design
• Documentation

Dotyczy

Not Language-Specific, Not OS-Specific, Not Architecture-Specific, Not Technology-Specific, ICS/OT

Źródła

1. Categories of Security Vulnerabilities in ICS — Securing Energy Infrastructure Executive Task Force (SEI ETF), Poorly Documented or Undocumented Features, 2022
2. Cybersecurity in Medical Devices: Quality System Considerations and Content of Premarket Submissions Draft Guidance for Industry and Food and Drug Administration Staff (DRAFT GUIDANCE) — FDA, 2022