---
type: "term"
title: "R-SPECIFIC (Specific Generic Vulnerability over Residual Test)"
description: "Global mapping rule (v2.6): where one weakness is describable both as a specific generic vulnerability and as a residual one, classify it under the specific."
resource: "tlctc:term:r-specific-specific-generic-vulnerability-over-residual-test"
tags:
  - "glossary"
---
# R-SPECIFIC (Specific Generic Vulnerability over Residual Test)

Global mapping rule (v2.6): where one weakness is describable both as a specific generic vulnerability and as a residual one, classify it under the specific. The residual tests — designed functionality (`#1`) and implementation flaw (`#2`/`#3` per R-ROLE) — apply only where no specific generic vulnerability is the one exploited. Three clauses decide the recurring cases:

- **capacity** — volume or intensity exhausting finite resources → `#6`; an implementation defect causing crash, hang or degradation (including algorithmic complexity) → `#2`/`#3`.
- **channel** — defective logic that is itself a communication-path control (certificate validation, chain of trust, hostname matching, expiry or revocation checking, channel encryption, algorithm negotiation) → `#5`; a defect incidental to that control (memory corruption in a TLS parser) → `#2`/`#3`.
- **substrate** — a physical-layer property of the substrate (charge, voltage, emission, temperature, emission-borne timing, wear, material state) as the exploited generic vulnerability → `#8`, whether or not the attacker has physical access; the physical layer as mere readout of a logic defect → classify by that defect (Rowhammer `#8`, Spectre `#2`, power analysis `#8`).

Each clause keeps the proposition of the v2.5 rule it replaces; R-FLOOD, R-CHANNEL and R-SUBSTRATE are retired aliases of the capacity, channel and substrate clauses. Cited as "R-SPECIFIC (capacity)", or inside parentheses as "R-SPECIFIC, capacity".

**Reference:** Core paper §6.1; dictionary `rules[R-SPECIFIC]`

See also: R-ROLE, Generic Vulnerability, Flooding Attack (#6), Man in the Middle (#5), Physical Attack (#8)