Common Weakness Enumeration

CWE-1221

Weakness Allowed

Incorrect Register Defaults or Module Parameters

Abstraction: Base · Status: Incomplete

API response cwe.mitre.org

Hardware description language code incorrectly defines register defaults or hardware Intellectual Property (IP) parameters to insecure values.

Mapping guidance

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.

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.

Relationships and members
ChildOf: CWE-1419 · View CWE-1000
Modes of introduction
Implementation

Such issues could be introduced during implementation of hardware design, since IP parameters and defaults are defined in HDL code and identified later during Testing or System Configuration phases.

Detection methods

Automated Analysis

Use automated tools to test that values are configured per design specifications. Hardware designs can have a large number of such parameters and register defaults settings, and it is important to have design tool support to check these settings in an automated way and be able to identify which settings are security sensitive.

Content history
Submission: Arun Kanuparthi, Hareesh Khattri, Parbati Kumar Manna, Narasimha Kumar V Mangipudi · Intel Corporation · 2019-12-12 · CWE 4.0
Contribution: Chen Chen, Rahul Kande, Jeyavijayan Rajendran · Texas A&M University · 2023-06-21 · CWE 4.13

suggested demonstrative example

Contribution: Shaza Zeitouni, Mohamadreza Rostami, Ahmad-Reza Sadeghi · Technical University of Darmstadt · 2023-06-21 · CWE 4.13

suggested demonstrative example

Contribution: Chen Chen, Rahul Kande, Jeyavijayan Rajendran · Texas A&M University · 2023-11-07 · CWE 4.14

suggested demonstrative example

Contribution: Shaza Zeitouni, Mohamadreza Rostami, Ahmad-Reza Sadeghi · Technical University of Darmstadt · 2023-11-07 · CWE 4.14

suggested demonstrative example

Modification: CWE Content Team · MITRE · 2021-07-20 · CWE 4.5

updated Related_Attack_Patterns

Modification: CWE Content Team · MITRE · 2021-10-28 · CWE 4.6

updated Common_Consequences

Modification: CWE Content Team · MITRE · 2022-10-13 · CWE 4.9

updated Demonstrative_Examples

Modification: CWE Content Team · MITRE · 2023-04-27 · CWE 4.11

updated Relationships

Modification: CWE Content Team · MITRE · 2023-06-29 · CWE 4.12

updated Mapping_Notes

Modification: CWE Content Team · MITRE · 2023-10-26 · CWE 4.13

updated Demonstrative_Examples, Description, References, Relationships

Modification: CWE Content Team · MITRE · 2024-02-29 · CWE 4.14

updated Demonstrative_Examples

Modification: CWE Content Team · MITRE · 2024-07-16 · CWE 4.15

updated Demonstrative_Examples, References

Modification: CWE Content Team · MITRE · 2025-12-11 · CWE 4.19

updated Detection_Factors, Potential_Mitigations, Weakness_Ordinalities

Modification: CWE Content Team · MITRE · 2026-10-28 · CWE 5.0

updated Background_Details, Common_Consequences, Demonstrative_Examples, Description, Detection_Factors

2 vulnerabilities reference this CWE, most recent first.

CVE-2022-20731 (GCVE-0-2022-20731)

Vulnerability from cvelistv5 – Published: 2022-04-15 14:20 – Updated: 2024-11-06 16:24
VLAI
Title
Cisco Catalyst Digital Building Series Switches and Cisco Catalyst Micro Switches Vulnerabilities
Summary
Multiple vulnerabilities that affect Cisco Catalyst Digital Building Series Switches and Cisco Catalyst Micro Switches could allow an attacker to execute persistent code at boot time or to permanently prevent the device from booting, resulting in a permanent denial of service (DoS) condition. For more information about these vulnerabilities, see the Details section of this advisory.
Severity
4.6 (Medium)
CVSS:3.1/AV:P/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
SSVC
Exploitation: none Automatable: no Technical Impact: partial
CISA Coordinator · CISA-ADP (v2.0.3)
Decision recorded 2024-11-06 15:58 UTC
CWE
Assigner
cisco CNA under the mitre root
CNA scorecard C 66/100 over 431 records in the last 180 days details
References
URL Tags
https://tools.cisco.com/security/center/content/C… vendor-advisoryx_refsource_CISCO
Impacted products
Date Public
2022-04-13 00:00
Show details on NVD website
To clipboard 

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CVE-2022-20661 (GCVE-0-2022-20661)

Vulnerability from cvelistv5 – Published: 2022-04-15 14:16 – Updated: 2024-11-06 16:25
VLAI
Title
Cisco Catalyst Digital Building Series Switches and Cisco Catalyst Micro Switches Vulnerabilities
Summary
Multiple vulnerabilities that affect Cisco Catalyst Digital Building Series Switches and Cisco Catalyst Micro Switches could allow an attacker to execute persistent code at boot time or to permanently prevent the device from booting, resulting in a permanent denial of service (DoS) condition. For more information about these vulnerabilities, see the Details section of this advisory.
Severity
4.6 (Medium)
CVSS:3.1/AV:P/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
SSVC
Exploitation: none Automatable: no Technical Impact: partial
CISA Coordinator · CISA-ADP (v2.0.3)
Decision recorded 2024-11-06 15:58 UTC
CWE
Assigner
cisco CNA under the mitre root
CNA scorecard C 66/100 over 431 records in the last 180 days details
References
URL Tags
https://tools.cisco.com/security/center/content/C… vendor-advisoryx_refsource_CISCO
Impacted products
Date Public
2022-04-13 00:00
Show details on NVD website
To clipboard 

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Mitigation
Architecture and Design

During hardware design, all the system parameters and register defaults must be reviewed to identify security sensitive settings.

Mitigation
Implementation

The default values of these security sensitive settings need to be defined as part of the design review phase.

CAPEC-166: Force the System to Reset Values

An attacker forces the target into a previous state in order to leverage potential weaknesses in the target dependent upon a prior configuration or state-dependent factors. Even in cases where an attacker may not be able to directly control the configuration of the targeted application, they may be able to reset the configuration to a prior state since many applications implement reset functions.

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