CWE-1279

Cryptographic Operations are run Before Supporting Units are Ready
AI Translation Available

Performing cryptographic operations without ensuring that the supporting inputs are ready to supply valid data may compromise the cryptographic result.

Status
incomplete
Abstraction
base
Not Language-Specific Verilog VHDL Processor Hardware Not Technology-Specific

Many cryptographic hardware units depend upon other hardware units to supply information to them to produce a securely encrypted result. For example, a cryptographic unit that depends on an external random-number-generator (RNG) unit for entropy must wait until the RNG unit is producing random numbers. If a cryptographic unit retrieves a private encryption key from a fuse unit, the fuse unit must be up and running before a key may be supplied.

Common Consequences

access control confidentiality integrity availability accountability authentication authorization non-repudiation
Impacts
varies by context

Potential Mitigations

Phases:
architecture and design implementation
Descriptions:
• Best practices should be used to design cryptographic systems.
• Continuously ensuring that cryptographic inputs are supplying valid information is necessary to ensure that the encrypted output is secure.