CWEweakness

CWE-1384 Improper Handling of Physical or Environmental Conditions

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Abstraction
Class
Structure
Simple
Status
Incomplete
CWE version
5.0

Description

The product does not properly handle unexpected physical or environmental conditions that occur naturally or are artificially induced.

Common consequences

• Confidentiality, Integrity, Availability: Varies by Context, Unexpected State — Consequences of this weakness are highly dependent on the role of affected components within the larger product.

Potential mitigations

• [Requirements] In requirements, be specific about expectations for how the product will perform when it exceeds physical and environmental boundary conditions, e.g., by shutting down. • [Architecture and Design, Implementation] Where possible, include independent components that can detect excess environmental conditions and have the capability to shut down the product. • [Architecture and Design, Implementation] Where possible, use shielding or other materials that can increase the adversary's workload and reduce the likelihood of being able to successfully trigger a security-related failure.

Observed examples

• CVE-2019-17391: Lack of anti-glitch protections allows an attacker to launch a physical attack to bypass the secure boot and read protected eFuses.

Related

Observed example · CVE (1)

  • CVE-2019-17391 An issue was discovered in the Espressif ESP32 mask ROM code 2016-06-08 0 through 2. vulnerability

Child of · CWE (1)

  • CWE-703 Improper Check or Handling of Exceptional Conditions weakness

Referenced by CVE · weakness (6)

  • CVE-2026-49325 Improper handling of physical conditions in the bike-shutdown control of the Indian Motorcycle Scout Bobber + Tech 2025 model year allows a… vulnerability
  • CVE-2026-2757 Incorrect boundary conditions in the WebRTC: Audio/Video component. vulnerability
  • CVE-2026-2759 Incorrect boundary conditions in the Graphics: ImageLib component. vulnerability
  • CVE-2026-2760 Sandbox escape due to incorrect boundary conditions in the Graphics: WebRender component. vulnerability
  • CVE-2025-52557 Mail-0's Zero is an open-source email solution. vulnerability
  • CVE-2024-39355 Improper handling of physical or environmental conditions in some Intel(R) Processors may allow an authenticated user to enable denial of… vulnerability

Referenced by CWE · child of (5)

  • CWE-1247 Improper Protection Against Voltage and Clock Glitches weakness
  • CWE-1261 Improper Handling of Single Event Upsets weakness
  • CWE-1332 Improper Handling of Faults that Lead to Instruction Skips weakness
  • CWE-1338 Improper Protections Against Hardware Overheating weakness
  • CWE-1351 Improper Handling of Hardware Behavior in Exceptionally Cold Environments weakness