CWE-514 Detail

CWE-514

Covert Channel
Incomplete
2006-07-19
00h00 +00:00
2024-07-16
00h00 +00:00
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Name: Covert Channel

A covert channel is a path that can be used to transfer information in a way not intended by the system's designers.

CWE Description

Typically the system has not given authorization for the transmission and has no knowledge of its occurrence.

General Informations

Modes Of Introduction

Implementation
Operation

Common Consequences

Scope Impact Likelihood
Confidentiality
Access Control		Read Application Data, Bypass Protection Mechanism

Detection Methods

Architecture or Design Review

According to SOAR, the following detection techniques may be useful:

Cost effective for partial coverage:
  • Inspection (IEEE 1028 standard) (can apply to requirements, design, source code, etc.)

Effectiveness : SOAR Partial

Vulnerability Mapping Notes

Justification : This CWE entry is a Class and might have Base-level children that would be more appropriate
Comment : Examine children of this entry to see if there is a better fit

Related Attack Patterns

CAPEC-ID Attack Pattern Name
CAPEC-463 Padding Oracle Crypto Attack
An adversary is able to efficiently decrypt data without knowing the decryption key if a target system leaks data on whether or not a padding error happened while decrypting the ciphertext. A target system that leaks this type of information becomes the padding oracle and an adversary is able to make use of that oracle to efficiently decrypt data without knowing the decryption key by issuing on average 128*b calls to the padding oracle (where b is the number of bytes in the ciphertext block). In addition to performing decryption, an adversary is also able to produce valid ciphertexts (i.e., perform encryption) by using the padding oracle, all without knowing the encryption key.

NotesNotes

A covert channel can be thought of as an emergent resource, meaning that it was not an originally intended resource, however it exists due the application's behaviors.
As of CWE 4.9, members of the CWE Hardware SIG are working to improve CWE's coverage of transient execution weaknesses, which include issues related to Spectre, Meltdown, and other attacks that create or exploit covert channels. As a result of that work, this entry might change in CWE 4.10.

References

REF-1431

A Taxonomy of Computer Program Security Flaws, with Examples
Carl E. Landwehr, Alan R. Bull, John P. McDermott, William S. Choi.
https://cwe.mitre.org/documents/sources/ATaxonomyofComputerProgramSecurityFlawswithExamples%5BLandwehr93%5D.pdf

Submission

Name Organization Date Date release Version
Landwehr 2006-07-19 +00:00 2006-07-19 +00:00 Draft 3

Modifications

Name Organization Date Comment
Eric Dalci Cigital 2008-07-01 +00:00 updated Time_of_Introduction
CWE Content Team MITRE 2008-09-08 +00:00 updated Relationships, Other_Notes, Taxonomy_Mappings
CWE Content Team MITRE 2008-10-14 +00:00 updated Description, Other_Notes, Theoretical_Notes
CWE Content Team MITRE 2009-07-27 +00:00 updated Relationships
CWE Content Team MITRE 2010-04-05 +00:00 updated Related_Attack_Patterns
CWE Content Team MITRE 2011-06-01 +00:00 updated Common_Consequences
CWE Content Team MITRE 2012-05-11 +00:00 updated Related_Attack_Patterns, Relationships
CWE Content Team MITRE 2013-02-21 +00:00 updated Description, Relationships, Theoretical_Notes
CWE Content Team MITRE 2014-06-23 +00:00 updated Related_Attack_Patterns
CWE Content Team MITRE 2014-07-30 +00:00 updated Detection_Factors, Relationships
CWE Content Team MITRE 2017-11-08 +00:00 updated Relationships
CWE Content Team MITRE 2020-02-24 +00:00 updated Relationships
CWE Content Team MITRE 2022-10-13 +00:00 updated Maintenance_Notes
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 2024-02-29 +00:00 updated Demonstrative_Examples
CWE Content Team MITRE 2024-07-16 +00:00 updated References