CWE-1419 — Vulnerability Class 8

8 vulnerabilities classified as CWE-1419. AI Chinese analysis included.

CWE-1419 represents a critical initialization flaw where software fails to properly set up a resource, leaving it in an unpredictable or insecure state prior to use. Attackers typically exploit this vulnerability by accessing the uninitialized resource before the intended setup completes, potentially bypassing security controls such as authentication checks or accessing sensitive default values. For instance, if a boolean flag indicating user login status is not explicitly initialized, it may default to true, granting unauthorized access. To mitigate this risk, developers must ensure all variables and resources are explicitly assigned safe default values immediately upon creation. Rigorous code reviews, static analysis tools, and strict adherence to initialization protocols during the coding phase are essential strategies to prevent these subtle yet dangerous logical errors from compromising system integrity.

MITRE CWE Description

The product attempts to initialize a resource but does not correctly do so, which might leave the resource in an unexpected, incorrect, or insecure state when it is accessed. This can have security implications when the associated resource is expected to have certain properties or values. Examples include a variable that determines whether a user has been authenticated or not, or a register or fuse value that determines the security state of the product. For software, this weakness can frequently occur when implicit initialization is used, meaning the resource is not explicitly set to a specific value. For example, in C, memory is not necessarily cleared when it is allocated on the stack, and many scripting languages use a default empty, null value, or zero value when a variable is not explicitly initialized. For hardware, this weakness frequently appears with reset values and fuses. After a product reset, hardware may initialize registers incorrectly. During different phases of a product lifecycle, fuses may be set to incorrect values. Even if fuses are set to correct values, the lines to the fuse could be broken or there might be hardware on the fuse line that alters the fuse value to be incorrect.

Common Consequences (3)

Confidentiality Read Memory, Read Application Data, Unexpected State

Authorization, Integrity Gain Privileges or Assume Identity

Other Varies by Context

The technical impact can vary widely based on how the resource is used in the product, and whether its contents affect security decisions.

Mitigations (4)

Implementation Choose the safest-possible initialization for security-related resources.

Implementation Ensure that each resource (whether variable, memory buffer, register, etc.) is fully initialized.

Implementation Pay close attention to complex conditionals or reset sources that affect initialization, since some paths might not perform the initialization.

Architecture and Design Ensure that the design and architecture clearly identify what the initialization should be, and that the initialization does not have security implications.

Examples (2)

Consider example design module system verilog code shown below. The register_example module is an example parameterized module that defines two parameters, REGISTER_WIDTH and REGISTER_DEFAULT. Register_example module defines a Secure_mode setting, which when set makes the register content read-only and not modifiable by software writes. register_top module instantiates two registers, Insecure_Devi…

// Parameterized Register module example // Secure_mode : REGISTER_DEFAULT[0] : When set to 1 register is read only and not writable// module register_example #( parameter REGISTER_WIDTH = 8, // Parameter defines width of register, default 8 bits parameter [REGISTER_WIDTH-1:0] REGISTER_DEFAULT = 2**REGISTER_WIDTH -2 // Default value of register computed from Width. Sets all bits to 1s except bit 0 (Secure _mode) ) ( input [REGISTER_WIDTH-1:0] Data_in, input Clk, input resetn, input write, output reg [REGISTER_WIDTH-1:0] Data_out ); reg Secure_mode; always @(posedge Clk or negedge resetn) if (~

Bad · Verilog

register_example #( .REGISTER_WIDTH (32), .REGISTER_DEFAULT (1225) // Correct default value set, to enable Secure_mode ) Secure_Device_ID_example ( .Data_in (Data_in), .Data_out (Secure_reg), .Clk (Clk), .resetn (resetn), .write (write) );

Good · Verilog

This code attempts to login a user using credentials from a POST request:

// $user and $pass automatically set from POST request if (login_user($user,$pass)) { $authorized = true; } ... if ($authorized) { generatePage(); }

Bad · PHP

$user = $_POST['user']; $pass = $_POST['pass']; $authorized = false; if (login_user($user,$pass)) { $authorized = true; } ...

Good · PHP

CVE ID	Title	CVSS	Severity	Published
CVE-2026-73451	On affected platforms running Arista EOS with dual switch cards and with ingress Security ACLs configured on Switched Virtual Interfaces (SVI) in shared mode, restarting of the secondary switchcard forwarding agent or insertion of secondary switchcard, can — EOS	4.8	Medium	2026-09-15
CVE-2026-33773	Junos OS: EX Series, QFX Series: If the same egress filter is configured on both an IRB and a physical interface one of those is not applied — Junos OS	5.8	Medium	2026-04-09
CVE-2026-21913	Junos OS: EX4000: A high volume of traffic destined to the device leads to a crash and restart — Junos OS	7.5	High	2026-01-15
CVE-2025-53800	Windows Graphics Component Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability — Windows 10 Version 1607	7.8	High	2025-09-09
CVE-2024-57375	Andamiro Pump It Up 20th Anniversary 安全漏洞 — Pump It Up	2.4	Low	2025-04-25
CVE-2024-0103	CVE — NVIDIA Triton Inference Server	5.4	Medium	2024-06-13
CVE-2023-45085	When compute hosts are disabled and reenabled, they immediately transition to "ON", not "INIT" — HyperCloud	3.2	Low	2023-12-05
CVE-2023-5078	Lenovo ThinkPad BIOS 安全漏洞 — ThinkPad BIOS	6.7	Medium	2023-11-08

Vulnerabilities classified as CWE-1419 represent 8 CVEs. The CWE taxonomy describes the weakness; review individual CVEs for product-specific impact.