CAPEC-521 Detail

An attacker with access to a manufacturer's hardware manufacturing process documentation alters the design specifications, which introduces flaws advantageous to the attacker once the system is deployed.

Prerequisites

Advanced knowledge of hardware capabilities of a manufacturer's product.
Access to the manufacturer's documentation.

Skills Required

Ability to read, interpret, and subsequently alter manufacturer's documentation to cause errors in design specifications.
Ability to stealthly gain access via remote compromise or physical access to the manufacturer's documentation.

Mitigations

Digitize documents and cryptographically sign them to verify authenticity.
Password protect documents and make them read-only for unauthorized users.
Avoid emailing important documents and configurations.
Ensure deleted files are actually deleted.
Maintain backups of the document for recovery and verification.
Separate need-to-know information from system configuration information depending on the user.

References

REF-439

Supply Chain Attack Framework and Attack Patterns
John F. Miller.
http://www.mitre.org/sites/default/files/publications/supply-chain-attack-framework-14-0228.pdf

REF-715

How To Secure Your Documents
Marie Prokopets.
https://nira.com/how-to-secure-your-documents/

Submission

Modifications