CAPEC-518
Documentation Alteration to Produce Under-performing Systems
An attacker with access to a manufacturer's documentation alters the descriptions of system capabilities with the intent of causing errors in derived system requirements, impacting the overall effectiveness and capability of the system, allowing an attacker to take advantage of the introduced system capability flaw once the system is deployed.
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Explain the attack pattern CAPEC-518: Documentation Alteration to Produce Under-performing Systems: how it unfolds, what it needs and how to prevent and detect it in my systems. Use https://capec.mitre.org/data/definitions/518.html and https://cve.bz/cve/capec/518?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 software and hardware capabilities of a manufacturer's product.
Access to the manufacturer's documentation.
Skills required
- High skill
Ability to read, interpret, and subsequently alter manufacturer's documentation to misrepresent system 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.
Separate need-to-know information from system configuration information depending on the user.
Related attack patterns
- Part of
- CAPEC-447 Design Alteration
Examples
A security subsystem involving encryption is a part of a product, but due to the demands of this subsystem du…
A security subsystem involving encryption is a part of a product, but due to the demands of this subsystem during operation, the subsystem only runs when a specific amount of memory and processing is available. An attacker alters the descriptions of the system capabilities so that when deployed with the minimal requirements at the victim location, the encryption subsystem is never operational, leaving the system in a weakened security state.
MITRE's words, unchanged: CAPEC-518 at MITRE. CAPEC is Copyright © 2007–2026, The MITRE Corporation, used under the CAPEC terms of use: “The MITRE Corporation (MITRE) hereby grants you a non-exclusive, royalty-free license to use Common Attack Pattern Enumeration and Classification (CAPEC™) for research, development, and commercial purposes. Any copy you make for such purposes is authorized provided that you reproduce MITRE’s copyright designation and this license in any such copy.” CAPEC and the CAPEC logo are trademarks of The MITRE Corporation. Credits. All attack patterns.