Firmware Not Updateable

Opis

The product does not provide its users with the ability to update or patch its firmware to address any vulnerabilities or weaknesses that may be present.

Without the ability to patch or update firmware, consumers will be left vulnerable to exploitation of any known vulnerabilities, or any vulnerabilities that are discovered in the future. This can expose consumers to permanent risk throughout the entire lifetime of the device, which could be years or decades. Some external protective measures and mitigations might be employed to aid in preventing or reducing the risk of malicious attack, but the root weakness cannot be corrected.

Skutki

• Confidentiality, Integrity, Access Control, Authentication, Authorization

  Gain Privileges or Assume Identity; Bypass Protection Mechanism; Execute Unauthorized Code or Commands; DoS: Crash, Exit, or Restart

  If an attacker can identify an exploitable vulnerability in one device that has no means of patching, the attack may be used against an entire class of devices.

Zapobieganie

• Requirements

  Specify requirements to include the ability to update the firmware. Include integrity checks and authentication to ensure that untrusted firmware cannot be installed.

• Architecture and Design

  Design the device to allow for updating the firmware. Ensure that the design specifies how to distribute the updates and ensure their integrity and authentication.

• Implementation

  Implement the necessary functionality to allow the firmware to be updated.

Przykłady podatności

• CVE-2020-9054 Chain: network-attached storage (NAS) device has a critical OS command injection (CWE-78) vulnerability that is actively exploited to place IoT devices into a botnet, but some products are "end-of-support" and cannot be patched (CWE-1277). [REF-1097]

Słabość nadrzędna

• CWE-1329 Reliance on Component That is Not Updateable

Kiedy powstaje

• Requirements — Requirements development might not consider the importance of updates over the lifetime of the product, or might not choose the ability due to concerns such as expense or speed to market.
• Architecture and Design — Lack of planning during architecture development and design, or external pressures such as speed to market, could ignore the capability to update.
• Implementation — The weakness can appear through oversight during implementation.

Dotyczy

Not Language-Specific, Not OS-Specific, Not Architecture-Specific, Not Technology-Specific

Uwagi

The "firmware" term does not have a single commonly-shared definition, so there may be variations in how this CWE entry is interpreted during mapping.

Źródła

1. Bad news: KeyWe Smart Lock is easily bypassed and can't be fixed — Matthew Hughes, 2019
2. Alarm bells ring, the IoT is listening — Alex Scroxton
3. Zyxel Flaw Powers New Mirai IoT Botnet Strain — Brian Krebs, 2020