CWE-1248: Semiconductor Defects in Hardware Logic with Security-Sensitive Implications
Description
The security-sensitive hardware module contains semiconductor defects.
Submission Date :
Feb. 12, 2020, midnight
Modification Date :
2023-06-29 00:00:00+00:00
Organization :
Intel Corporation
Extended Description
A semiconductor device can fail for various reasons. While some are manufacturing and packaging defects, the rest are due to prolonged use or usage under extreme conditions. Some mechanisms that lead to semiconductor defects include encapsulation failure, die-attach failure, wire-bond failure, bulk-silicon defects, oxide-layer faults, aluminum-metal faults (including electromigration, corrosion of aluminum, etc.), and thermal/electrical stress. These defects manifest as faults on chip-internal signals or registers, have the effect of inputs, outputs, or intermediate signals being always 0 or always 1, and do not switch as expected. If such faults occur in security-sensitive hardware modules, the security objectives of the hardware module may be compromised.
Example - 1
The network-on-chip implements a firewall for access control to peripherals from all IP cores capable of mastering transactions.
A manufacturing defect in this logic manifests itself as a logical fault, which always sets the output of the filter to "allow" access.Post-manufacture testing must be performed to ensure that hardware logic implementing security functionalities is defect-free.
Related Weaknesses
This table shows the weaknesses and high level categories that are related to this weakness. These relationships are defined to give an overview of the different insight to similar items that may exist at higher and lower levels of abstraction.
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