CWE-1277: Firmware Not Updateable | Glexia
CWE-1277 (Firmware Not Updateable) weakness overview with consequences, detection methods, mitigations, related CVEs and MITRE ATT&CK context.
Glexia's Take · Automated analysis
CWE-1277: Firmware Not Updateable
Firmware Not Updateable represents a recurring weakness pattern that can create exploitable paths when design, validation, or implementation controls are missing.
Executive Impact
- Confidentiality,Integrity,Access Control,Authentication,Authorization: Gain Privileges or Assume Identity,Bypass Protection Mechanism,Execute Unauthorized Code or Commands,DoS: Crash, Exit, or Restart: If an attacker can identify an exploitable vulnerability in one device that has no means of patching, the attack may be used against an entire class of devices.
Developer Pattern
CWE-1277 is the kind of defect developers can usually prevent with explicit validation, safer framework defaults, and tests that exercise hostile input or unsafe state transitions.
Automation confidence
high confidence from CWE-1277, 4.20.
Generated from the cited source records. This long-tail analysis has not been individually reviewed by a named human.
Official CWE Definition
CWE-1277: Firmware Not Updateable
The product does not provide its users with the ability to update or patch its firmware to address any vulnerabilities or weaknesses that may be present.
Without the ability to patch or update firmware, consumers will be left vulnerable to exploitation of any known vulnerabilities, or any vulnerabilities that are discovered in the future. This can expose consumers to permanent risk throughout the entire lifetime of the device, which could be years or decades. Some external protective measures and mitigations might be employed to aid in preventing or reducing the risk of malicious attack, but the root weakness cannot be corrected.
Developer And Remediation Guidance
How teams prevent and detect this weakness
Causes
- A refrigerator has an Internet interface for the official purpose of alerting the manufacturer when that refrigerator detects a fault. Because the device is attached to the Internet, the refrigerator is a target for hackers who may wish to use the device other potentially more nefarious purposes.
Remediation
- Requirements: Specify requirements to include the ability to update the firmware. Include integrity checks and authentication to ensure that untrusted firmware cannot be installed.
- Architecture and Design: Design the device to allow for updating the firmware. Ensure that the design specifies how to distribute the updates and ensure their integrity and authentication.
- Implementation: Implement the necessary functionality to allow the firmware to be updated.
Detection
- Manual Analysis: Create a new installable boot image of the current build with a minor version number change. Use the standard installation method to update the boot image. Verify that the minor version number has changed. Create a fake image. Verify that the boot updater will not install the fake image and generates an "invalid image" error message or equivalent.
- Architecture or Design Review: Check the consumer or maintainer documentation, the architecture/design documentation, or the original requirements to ensure that the documentation includes details for how to update the firmware.
- Manual Dynamic Analysis: Determine if there is a lack of a capability to update read-only memory (ROM) structure. This could manifest as a difference between the latest firmware version and the current version within the device.
Mappings
Related CVEs, CWEs, and ATT&CK context
ATT&CK Relevance
ATT&CK relevance is shown only when reviewed or responsibly inferred.