CAPEC-517
Documentation Alteration to Circumvent Dial-down
An attacker with access to a manufacturer's documentation, which include descriptions of advanced technology and/or specific components' criticality, alters the documents to circumvent dial-down functionality requirements. This alteration would change the interpretation of implementation and manufacturing techniques, allowing for advanced technologies to remain in place even though these technologies might be restricted to certain customers, such as nations on the terrorist watch list, giving the attacker on the receiving end of a shipped product access to an advanced technology that might otherwise be restricted.
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Explain the attack pattern CAPEC-517: Documentation Alteration to Circumvent Dial-down: how it unfolds, what it needs and how to prevent and detect it in my systems. Use https://capec.mitre.org/data/definitions/517.html and https://cve.bz/cve/capec/517?via=ask-ai-copy, which lists recent CVEs with the weaknesses it exploits. Cite the sources.Opens a third-party assistant; its answer is its own, not cve.bz's. The prompt holds only this attack pattern's id and public links.
Prerequisites
Advanced knowledge of internal software and hardware components within manufacturer's development environment.
Access to the manufacturer's documentation.
Skills required
- High skill
Ability to read, interpret, and subsequently alter manufacturer's documentation to prevent dial-down capabilities.
- High skill
Ability to stealthly gain access via remote compromise or physical access to the manufacturer's documentation.
Mitigations
Digitize documents and cryptographically sign them to verify authenticity.
Password protect documents and make them read-only for unauthorized users.
Avoid emailing important documents and configurations.
Ensure deleted files are actually deleted.
Maintain backups of the document for recovery and verification.
Related attack patterns
- Part of
- CAPEC-447 Design Alteration
Examples
A product for manufacture exists that contains advanced cryptographic capabilities, including algorithms that…
A product for manufacture exists that contains advanced cryptographic capabilities, including algorithms that are restricted from being shipped to some nations. An attacker from one of the restricted nations alters the documentation to ensure that when the product is manufactured for shipment to a restricted nation, the software compilation steps that normally would prevent the advanced cryptographic capabilities from being included are actually included. When the product is shipped to the attacker's home country, the attacker is able to retrieve and/or use the advanced cryptographic capabilities.
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