CWE-1245 Detail

CWE-1245

Improper Finite State Machines (FSMs) in Hardware Logic
Incomplete
2020-02-24
00h00 +00:00
2025-12-11
00h00 +00:00
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Name: Improper Finite State Machines (FSMs) in Hardware Logic

Faulty finite state machines (FSMs) in the hardware logic allow an attacker to put the system in an undefined state, to cause a denial of service (DoS) or gain privileges on the victim's system.

General Informations

Modes Of Introduction

Architecture and Design
Implementation

Applicable Platforms

Language

Class: Not Language-Specific (Undetermined)

Operating Systems

Class: Not OS-Specific (Undetermined)

Architectures

Class: Not Architecture-Specific (Undetermined)

Technologies

Class: System on Chip (Undetermined)

Common Consequences

Scope Impact Likelihood
Availability
Access Control		Unexpected State, DoS: Crash, Exit, or Restart, DoS: Instability, Gain Privileges or Assume Identity

Note: Faulty FSM designs that do not account for all states, either through undefined states (left as don't cares) or through incorrect implementation, might lead an attacker to drive the system into an unstable state from which the system cannot recover without a reset, thus causing a DoS. Depending on what the FSM is used for, an attacker might also gain additional privileges to launch further attacks and compromise the security guarantees.

Potential Mitigations

Phases : Architecture and Design // Implementation
Define all possible states and handle all unused states through default statements. Ensure that system defaults to a secure state.

Vulnerability Mapping Notes

Justification : This CWE entry is at the Base level of abstraction, which is a preferred level of abstraction for mapping to the root causes of vulnerabilities.
Comment : Carefully read both the name and description to ensure that this mapping is an appropriate fit. Do not try to 'force' a mapping to a lower-level Base/Variant simply to comply with this preferred level of abstraction.

Related Attack Patterns

CAPEC-ID Attack Pattern Name
CAPEC-74 Manipulating State

References

REF-1060

FSM Anomaly Detection using Formal Analysis
Farimah Farahmandi, Prabhat Mishra.
https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=8119228&tag=1

Submission

Name Organization Date Date release Version
Arun Kanuparthi, Hareesh Khattri, Parbati Kumar Manna, Narasimha Kumar V Mangipudi Intel Corporation 2020-02-12 +00:00 2020-02-24 +00:00 4.0

Modifications

Name Organization Date Comment
CWE Content Team MITRE 2020-08-20 +00:00 updated Related_Attack_Patterns
CWE Content Team MITRE 2022-10-13 +00:00 updated Demonstrative_Examples
CWE Content Team MITRE 2023-04-27 +00:00 updated Relationships
CWE Content Team MITRE 2023-06-29 +00:00 updated Mapping_Notes
CWE Content Team MITRE 2025-12-11 +00:00 updated Common_Consequences, Description, Weakness_Ordinalities
The information presented on CVE Find originates from several carefully selected reference sources. CVE data is provided by MITRE Corporation and the National Vulnerability Database (NVD). The Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog is sourced from the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), while EPSS scores come from FIRST.org. Additionally, data regarding software weaknesses (CWE) and common attack patterns (CAPEC) is maintained by MITRE Corporation, and information on hardware and software configurations (CPE) is provided by the NVD.