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Description
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.
Modes of Introduction:
– Requirements
Related Weaknesses
CWE-1329
Consequences
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.
Potential Mitigations
Phase: Requirements
Description:
Specify requirements to include the ability to update the firmware. Include integrity checks and authentication to ensure that untrusted firmware cannot be installed.
Phase: Architecture and Design
Description:
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.
Phase: Implementation
Description:
Implement the necessary functionality to allow the firmware to be updated.
CVE References
- 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]
- [REF-1095]
- A hardware “smart lock” has weak key generation that allows attackers to steal the key by BLE sniffing, but the device’s firmware cannot be upgraded and hence remains vulnerable [REF-1095].
