CWE-1326

Name

Missing Immutable Root of Trust in Hardware

Status

Draft

Published

2020-12-10
00h00 +00:00

Modified

2025-12-11
00h00 +00:00

Official links

CWE Mitre.org

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Name: Missing Immutable Root of Trust in Hardware

A missing immutable root of trust in the hardware results in the ability to bypass secure boot or execute untrusted or adversarial boot code.

General Informations

Modes Of Introduction

Architecture and Design
Implementation : Such issues could be introduced during policy definition, hardware architecture, design, manufacturing, and/or provisioning. They can be identified later during testing or system configuration phases.

Applicable Platforms

Language

Class: Not Language-Specific (Undetermined)

Operating Systems

Class: Not OS-Specific (Undetermined)

Architectures

Class: Not Architecture-Specific (Undetermined)

Technologies

Name: Security Hardware (Undetermined)
Class: Not Technology-Specific (Undetermined)

Common Consequences

Scope	Impact	Likelihood
Authentication Authorization	Gain Privileges or Assume Identity, Execute Unauthorized Code or Commands, Modify Memory	High

Potential Mitigations

Phases : Architecture and Design
When architecting the system, the RoT should be designated for storage in a memory that does not allow further programming/writes.
Phases : Implementation
During implementation and test, the RoT memory location should be demonstrated to not allow further programming/writes.

Detection Methods

Automated Dynamic Analysis

Automated testing can verify that RoT components are immutable.
Effectiveness : High

Architecture or Design Review

Root of trust elements and memory should be part of architecture and design reviews.
Effectiveness : High

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-679	Exploitation of Improperly Configured or Implemented Memory Protections
CAPEC-68	Subvert Code-signing Facilities Many languages use code signing facilities to vouch for code's identity and to thus tie code to its assigned privileges within an environment. Subverting this mechanism can be instrumental in an attacker escalating privilege. Any means of subverting the way that a virtual machine enforces code signing classifies for this style of attack.

References

Submission

Name	Organization	Date	Date release	Version
Arun Kanuparthi, Hareesh Khattri, Parbati Kumar Manna	Intel Corporation	2020-04-25 +00:00	2020-12-10 +00:00	4.3

Modifications

Name	Organization	Date	Comment
CWE Content Team	MITRE	2021-10-28 +00:00	updated Demonstrative_Examples
CWE Content Team	MITRE	2022-04-28 +00:00	updated Applicable_Platforms, Related_Attack_Patterns
CWE Content Team	MITRE	2022-06-28 +00:00	updated Applicable_Platforms, Modes_of_Introduction
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	2023-10-26 +00:00	updated Demonstrative_Examples, References
CWE Content Team	MITRE	2025-12-11 +00:00	updated Weakness_Ordinalities

CWE-1326 Detail