CWE - CWE-1320: Improper Protection for Outbound Error Messages and Alert Signals (4.20)
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    CWE-1320: Improper Protection for Outbound Error Messages and Alert Signals

    Weakness ID: 1320
    Vulnerability Mapping: ALLOWED This CWE ID may be used to map to real-world vulnerabilities
    Abstraction: Base Base - a weakness that is still mostly independent of a resource or technology, but with sufficient details to provide specific methods for detection and prevention. Base level weaknesses typically describe issues in terms of 2 or 3 of the following dimensions: behavior, property, technology, language, and resource.
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    + Description
    Untrusted agents can disable alerts about signal conditions exceeding limits or the response mechanism that handles such alerts.
    + Extended Description

    Hardware sensors are used to detect whether a device is operating within design limits. The threshold values for these limits are set by hardware fuses or trusted software such as a BIOS. Modification of these limits may be protected by hardware mechanisms.

    When device sensors detect out of bound conditions, alert signals may be generated for remedial action, which may take the form of device shutdown or throttling.

    Warning signals that are not properly secured may be disabled or used to generate spurious alerts, causing degraded performance or denial-of-service (DoS). These alerts may be masked by untrusted software. Examples of these alerts involve thermal and power sensor alerts.

    + Common Consequences
    Section HelpThis table specifies different individual consequences associated with the weakness. The Scope identifies the application security area that is violated, while the Impact describes the negative technical impact that arises if an adversary succeeds in exploiting this weakness. The Likelihood provides information about how likely the specific consequence is expected to be seen relative to the other consequences in the list. For example, there may be high likelihood that a weakness will be exploited to achieve a certain impact, but a low likelihood that it will be exploited to achieve a different impact.
    Impact Details

    DoS: Instability; DoS: Crash, Exit, or Restart; Reduce Reliability; Unexpected State

    		Scope: Availability

    Likelihood: High
    + Potential Mitigations
    Phase(s) Mitigation

    Architecture and Design
    Alert signals generated by critical events should be protected from access by untrusted agents. Only hardware or trusted firmware modules should be able to alter the alert configuration.
    + Relationships
    Section Help This table shows the weaknesses and high level categories that are related to this weakness. These relationships are defined as ChildOf, ParentOf, MemberOf and give insight to similar items that may exist at higher and lower levels of abstraction. In addition, relationships such as PeerOf and CanAlsoBe are defined to show similar weaknesses that the user may want to explore.
    + Relevant to the view "Research Concepts" (View-1000)
    Nature Type ID Name
    ChildOf Pillar Pillar - a weakness that is the most abstract type of weakness and represents a theme for all class/base/variant weaknesses related to it. A Pillar is different from a Category as a Pillar is still technically a type of weakness that describes a mistake, while a Category represents a common characteristic used to group related things. 284 Improper Access Control
    + Relevant to the view "Hardware Design" (View-1194)
    Nature Type ID Name
    MemberOf Category Category - a CWE entry that contains a set of other entries that share a common characteristic. 1206 Power, Clock, Thermal, and Reset Concerns
    + Modes Of Introduction
    Section HelpThe different Modes of Introduction provide information about how and when this weakness may be introduced. The Phase identifies a point in the life cycle at which introduction may occur, while the Note provides a typical scenario related to introduction during the given phase.
    Phase Note
    Architecture and Design
    Implementation
    + Applicable Platforms
    Section HelpThis listing shows possible areas for which the given weakness could appear. These may be for specific named Languages, Operating Systems, Architectures, Paradigms, Technologies, or a class of such platforms. The platform is listed along with how frequently the given weakness appears for that instance.
    Languages

    Class: Not Language-Specific (Undetermined Prevalence)

    Operating Systems

    Class: Not OS-Specific (Undetermined Prevalence)

    Architectures

    Class: Not Architecture-Specific (Undetermined Prevalence)

    Technologies

    Class: System on Chip (Undetermined Prevalence)

    Microcontroller Hardware (Undetermined Prevalence)

    Memory Hardware (Undetermined Prevalence)

    Power Management Hardware (Undetermined Prevalence)

    Processor Hardware (Undetermined Prevalence)

    Test/Debug Hardware (Undetermined Prevalence)

    Sensor Hardware (Undetermined Prevalence)

    + Demonstrative Examples

    Example 1


    Consider a platform design where a Digital-Thermal Sensor (DTS) is used to monitor temperature and compare that output against a threshold value. If the temperature output equals or exceeds the threshold value, the DTS unit sends an alert signal to the processor.

    The processor, upon getting the alert, input triggers system shutdown. The alert signal is handled as a General-Purpose-I/O (GPIO) pin in input mode.

    (bad code)
    Example Language: Other 
    The processor-GPIO controller exposes software-programmable controls that allow untrusted software to reprogram the state of the GPIO pin.

    Reprogramming the state of the GPIO pin allows malicious software to trigger spurious alerts or to set the alert pin to a zero value so that thermal sensor alerts are not received by the processor.

    (good code)
    Example Language: Other 
    The GPIO alert-signal pin is blocked from untrusted software access and is controlled only by trusted software, such as the System BIOS.


    + Weakness Ordinalities
    Ordinality Description
    Primary
    (where the weakness exists independent of other weaknesses)
    + Memberships
    Section HelpThis MemberOf Relationships table shows additional CWE Categories and Views that reference this weakness as a member. This information is often useful in understanding where a weakness fits within the context of external information sources.
    Nature Type ID Name
    MemberOf CategoryCategory - a CWE entry that contains a set of other entries that share a common characteristic. 1396 Comprehensive Categorization: Access Control
    + Vulnerability Mapping Notes
    Usage ALLOWED
    (this CWE ID may be used to map to real-world vulnerabilities)
    Reason Acceptable-Use

    Rationale

    		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.

    Comments

    		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.
    + Content History
    + Submissions
    Submission Date Submitter Organization
    2020-05-29
    (CWE 4.3, 2020-12-10)     		Hareesh Khattri, Arun Kanuparthi, Parbati K. Manna Intel Corporation
    + Modifications
    Modification Date Modifier Organization
    2025-12-11
    (CWE 4.19, 2025-12-11)     		CWE Content Team MITRE
    updated Weakness_Ordinalities
    2025-04-03
    (CWE 4.17, 2025-04-03)     		CWE Content Team MITRE
    updated Demonstrative_Examples
    2023-06-29
    (CWE 4.12, 2023-06-29)     		CWE Content Team MITRE
    updated Mapping_Notes
    2023-04-27
    (CWE 4.11, 2023-04-27)     		CWE Content Team MITRE
    updated Relationships
    2022-10-13
    (CWE 4.9, 2022-10-13)     		CWE Content Team MITRE
    updated Name
    2022-06-28
    (CWE 4.8, 2022-06-28)     		CWE Content Team MITRE
    updated Applicable_Platforms
    2022-04-28
    (CWE 4.7, 2022-04-28)     		CWE Content Team MITRE
    updated Applicable_Platforms
    + Previous Entry Names
    Change Date Previous Entry Name
    2022-10-13 Improper Protection for Out of Bounds Signal Level Alerts
    Page Last Updated: April 30, 2026