CAPEC-447: Design Alteration

Overview

CAPEC-447 (Design Alteration) is a standard-level attack pattern catalogued by MITRE in the Common Attack Pattern Enumeration and Classification (CAPEC). It describes a recurring method attackers use to exploit software weaknesses.

What the attacker needs

Prerequisites

Access to system design documentation prior to the development phase. This access is often obtained via insider access or by leveraging another attack pattern to gain permissions that the adversary wouldn't normally have.
Ability to forge web communications to deliver modified design documentation.

Consequences

What a successful CAPEC-447 attack can achieve.

Execute Unauthorized Commands

Affects: Authorization

Unreliable Execution

Affects: Availability

Alter Execution Logic

Affects: Integrity

How to mitigate it

Defenses that reduce the risk of CAPEC-447.

Assess design documentation prior to development to ensure that they function as intended and without any malicious functionality.
Ensure that design documentation is saved in a secure location and has proper access controls set in place to avoid unnecessary modification.

How this attack relates to others in the CAPEC hierarchy.

Parent

CAPEC-438: Modification During Manufacture

Child

Frequently asked questions

Common questions about CAPEC-447.

What is CAPEC-447?

An adversary modifies the design of a technology, product, or component to acheive a negative impact once the system is deployed. In this type of attack, the goal of the adversary is to modify the design of the system, prior to development starting, in such a way that the negative impact can be leveraged when the system is later deployed. Design alteration attacks differ from development alteration attacks in that design alteration attacks take place prior to development and which then may or may not be developed by the adverary. Design alteration attacks include modifying system designs to degrade system performance, cause unexpected states or errors, and general design changes that may lead to additional vulnerabilities. These attacks generally require insider access to modify design documents, but they may also be spoofed via web communications. The product is then developed and delivered to the user where the negative impact can be leveraged at a later time.

How do you prevent CAPEC-447?

Assess design documentation prior to development to ensure that they function as intended and without any malicious functionality.

How severe is CAPEC-447?

MITRE rates CAPEC-447 as High severity with medium likelihood of attack.

References

Attack-pattern data is sourced from the MITRE CAPEC catalog (v3.9). Weakness associations link to the corresponding CWE entries on RadicalNotion.AI.