CWE-1300: Improper Protection Against Physical Side Channels
Weakness ID: 1300
Abstraction: Base Structure: Simple
Status: Incomplete
Presentation Filter:
Description
The product is missing protections or implements insufficient protections against information leakage through physical channels such as power consumption, electromagnetic emissions (EME), acoustic emissions, or other physical attributes.
Extended Description
Physical properties of the hardware implementation such as power consumption or EME can result in data disclosure even if it is not possible to extract the information in the digital domain. Physical side channels such as power consumption, electromagnetic emissions (EME), and acoustic emissions have been well-studied for decades in the context of breaking implementations of cryptographic algorithms. These side-channels may be easily observed by an attacker with physical access to the device. Power, EME, and acoustic measurements obtained during hardware operation are correlated to data processed by the hardware, enabling recovery of secret keys and data.
Relationships
The table(s) below shows the weaknesses and high level categories that are related to this weakness. These relationships are defined as ChildOf, ParentOf, MemberOf and give insight to similar items that may exist at higher and lower levels of abstraction. In addition, relationships such as PeerOf and CanAlsoBe are defined to show similar weaknesses that the user may want to explore.
Relevant to the view "Research Concepts" (CWE-1000)
Nature
Type
ID
Name
ChildOf
Base - a weakness
that is still mostly independent of a resource or technology, but with sufficient details to provide specific methods for detection and prevention. Base level weaknesses typically describe issues in terms of 2 or 3 of the following dimensions: behavior, property, technology, language, and resource.
Base - a weakness
that is still mostly independent of a resource or technology, but with sufficient details to provide specific methods for detection and prevention. Base level weaknesses typically describe issues in terms of 2 or 3 of the following dimensions: behavior, property, technology, language, and resource.
The different Modes of Introduction provide information about how and when this weakness may be introduced. The Phase identifies a point in the life cycle at which introduction may occur, while the Note provides a typical scenario related to introduction during the given phase.
Phase
Note
Implementation
Applicable Platforms
The listings below show possible areas for which the given weakness could appear. These may be for specific named Languages, Operating Systems, Architectures, Paradigms, Technologies, or a class of such platforms. The platform is listed along with how frequently the given weakness appears for that instance.
The table below specifies different individual consequences associated with the weakness. The Scope identifies the application security area that is violated, while the Impact describes the negative technical impact that arises if an adversary succeeds in exploiting this weakness. The Likelihood provides information about how likely the specific consequence is expected to be seen relative to the other consequences in the list. For example, there may be high likelihood that a weakness will be exploited to achieve a certain impact, but a low likelihood that it will be exploited to achieve a different impact.
Scope
Impact
Likelihood
Confidentiality
Technical Impact: Read Memory; Read Application Data
Potential Mitigations
Phase: Architecture and Design
Apply blinding or masking techniques to implementations of cryptographic algorithms.
Phase: Implementation
Add shielding or tamper-resistant protections to the device to increase the difficulty of obtaining measurements of the side-channel.
Notes
Maintenance
This entry is still under development and will continue to see updates and content improvements.
Description
