CWE-1277

Firmware Not Updateable
AI Translation Available

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.

Status
draft
Abstraction
base

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.

Common Consequences

confidentiality integrity access control authentication authorization
Impacts
gain privileges or assume identity bypass protection mechanism execute unauthorized code or commands dos: crash, exit, or restart

Detection Methods

manual analysis architecture or design review manual dynamic analysis

Potential Mitigations

Phases:
requirements architecture and design implementation
Descriptions:
• Specify requirements to include the ability to update the firmware. Include integrity checks and authentication to ensure that untrusted firmware cannot be installed.
• Implement the necessary functionality to allow the firmware to be updated.
• 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.