The developer builds a security-critical protection mechanism into the software, but the processor optimizes the execution of the program such that the mechanism is removed or modified.
View on MITREA successful exploitation of this weakness will change the order of an application's execution and will likely be used to bypass specific protection mechanisms. This bypass can be exploited further to potentially read data that should otherwise be unaccessible.
No mitigation information available for this CWE.
No detection method information available for this CWE.
Intel, ARM, and AMD processor optimizations related to speculative execution and branch prediction cause access control checks to be bypassed when placing data into the cache. Often known as "Spectre".
View DetailsIntel, ARM, and AMD processor optimizations related to speculative execution and branch prediction cause access control checks to be bypassed when placing data into the cache. Often known as "Spectre".
View DetailsIntel processor optimizations related to speculative execution cause access control checks to be bypassed when placing data into the cache. Often known as "Meltdown".
View DetailsNo relationship information available for this CWE.
CWE-1037: Processor Optimization Removal or Modification of Security-critical Code is a Common Weakness Enumeration (CWE) entry maintained by MITRE. The developer builds a security-critical protection mechanism into the software, but the processor optimizes the execution of the program such that the mechanism is removed or modified.
If exploited, CWE-1037 (Processor Optimization Removal or Modification of Security-critical Code) it can compromise Integrity, leading to outcomes such as Bypass Protection Mechanism.
CWE-1037 commonly affects Not Language-Specific. Note that weaknesses are often language-agnostic patterns, so secure coding practices apply broadly.
MITRE documents real CVEs mapped to CWE-1037, including CVE-2017-5715, CVE-2017-5753 and CVE-2017-5754. You can look up the full details of each CVE, including CVSS scores and remediation guidance, on our CVE Lookup tool.
A CWE (Common Weakness Enumeration) like CWE-1037 describes a category of software weakness — the underlying flaw type. A CVE (Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures) identifies a specific, real-world vulnerability in a particular product. In short, a CWE is the kind of mistake, and a CVE is an instance of that mistake being found in software.