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CWE-1329 — Vulnerability Class 3

3 vulnerabilities classified as CWE-1329. AI Chinese analysis included.

CWE-1329 represents a critical architectural weakness where a software component lacks the capability to be updated or patched, leaving the system permanently vulnerable to discovered flaws. This issue typically arises when developers integrate third-party libraries, legacy modules, or proprietary hardware that do not support version upgrades or security patches. Exploitation occurs when attackers identify known vulnerabilities within these static components, knowing the vendor cannot mitigate the risk through standard updates, thereby forcing a complete product replacement or leaving the system exposed indefinitely. To avoid this weakness, developers must prioritize modular design principles, ensuring all dependencies are regularly audited for update support. Selecting components with active maintenance lifecycles and implementing abstraction layers allows for easier replacement or isolation of unpatchable elements, ensuring the overall system remains resilient against evolving threats.

MITRE CWE Description
The product contains a component that cannot be updated or patched in order to remove vulnerabilities or significant bugs. If the component is discovered to contain a vulnerability or critical bug, but the issue cannot be fixed using an update or patch, then the product's owner will not be able to protect against the issue. The only option might be replacement of the product, which could be too financially or operationally expensive for the product owner. As a result, the inability to patch or update can leave the product open to attacker exploitation or critical operation failures. This weakness can be especially difficult to manage when using ROM, firmware, or similar components that traditionally have had limited or no update capabilities. In industries such as healthcare, "legacy" devices can be operated for decades. As a US task force report [REF-1197] notes, "the inability to update or replace equipment has both large and small health care delivery organizations struggle with numerous unsupported legacy systems that cannot easily be replaced (hardware, software, and operating systems) with large numbers of vulnerabilities and few modern countermeasures." While hardware can be prone to this weakness, software systems can also be affected, such as when a third-party driver or library is no longer actively maintained or supported but is still critical for the required functionality.
Common Consequences (1)
Confidentiality, Integrity, Access Control, Authentication, Authorization, OtherGain Privileges or Assume Identity, Bypass Protection Mechanism, Execute Unauthorized Code or Commands, DoS: Crash, Exit, or Restart, Quality Degradation, Reduce Maintainability
If an attacker can identify an exploitable vulnerability in one product that has no means of patching, the attack may be used against all affected versions of that product.
Mitigations (4)
RequirementsSpecify requirements that each component should be updateable, including ROM, firmware, etc.
Architecture and DesignDesign the product to allow for updating of its components. Include the external infrastructure that might be necessary to support updates, such as distribution servers.
Architecture and Design, ImplementationWith hardware, support patches that can be programmed in-field or during manufacturing through hardware fuses. This feature can be used for limited patching of devices after shipping, or for the next batch of silicon devices manufactured, without changing the full device ROM.
Effectiveness: Moderate
ImplementationImplement the necessary functionality to allow each component to be updated.
Examples (2)
A refrigerator has an Internet interface for the official purpose of alerting the manufacturer when that refrigerator detects a fault. Because the device is attached to the Internet, the refrigerator is a target for hackers who may wish to use the device other potentially more nefarious purposes.
The refrigerator has no means of patching and is hacked, becoming a spewer of email spam.
Bad · Other
The device automatically patches itself and provides considerable more protection against being hacked.
Good · Other
A System-on-Chip (SOC) implements a Root-of-Trust (RoT) in ROM to boot secure code. However, at times this ROM code might have security vulnerabilities and need to be patched. Since ROM is immutable, it can be impossible to patch.
CVE IDTitleCVSSSeverityPublished
CVE-2026-21265 Secure Boot Certificate Expiration Security Feature Bypass Vulnerability — Windows 10 Version 1607 6.4 Medium2026-01-13
CVE-2022-34381 Dell BSAFE 安全漏洞 — Dell BSAFE Crypto-J 9.1 Critical2024-02-02
CVE-2021-38398 Reliance on Component that is not Updateable for Boston Scientific Zoom Latitude — ZOOM LATITUDE 6.5 Medium2021-10-04

Vulnerabilities classified as CWE-1329 represent 3 CVEs. The CWE taxonomy describes the weakness; review individual CVEs for product-specific impact.