CWE-1243

Base Abstraction Level
Pillar — Highest-level weakness category
Class — Abstract, language-independent
Base — Specific enough to detect
Variant — Tied to specific technology
Compound — Requires multiple weaknesses Incomplete MITRE CWE Status
Stable — Fully reviewed and complete
Draft — Under development, may change
Incomplete — Partially defined by MITRE
Deprecated — No longer recommended
Obsolete — Replaced by another CWE
Sensitive Non-Volatile Information Not Protected During Debug

Description

Access to security-sensitive information stored in fuses is not limited during debug.

Several security-sensitive values are programmed into fuses to be used during early-boot flows or later at runtime. Examples of these security-sensitive values include root keys, encryption keys, manufacturing-specific information, chip-manufacturer-specific information, and original-equipment-manufacturer (OEM) data. After the chip is powered on, these values are sensed from fuses and stored in temporary locations such as registers and local memories. These locations are typically access-control protected from untrusted agents capable of accessing them. Even to trusted agents, only read-access is provided.

Consequences

Confidentiality, Access Control — Modify Memory, Read Memory, Bypass Protection Mechanism

If these locations are not blocked during debug operations, it can allow a user to access this sensitive information.

Mitigations

Phase: Architecture and Design, Implementation

Disable access to security-sensitive information stored in fuses directly and also reflected from temporary storage locations when in debug mode.