  High-speed programmable switches have emerged as a promising building block
for developing performant data-plane applications. In this paper, we argue that
the resource constraints and programming model in hardware switches has led to
developers adopting problematic design patterns, whose security implications
are not widely understood. We bridge the gap by identifying the major
challenges and common design pitfalls in switch-based applications in
adversarial settings. Examining six recently-proposed switch-based security
applications, we find that adversaries can exploit these design pitfalls to
completely bypass the protection these applications were designed to provide,
or disrupt system operations by introducing collateral damage.
