CAPEC Definitions / CAPEC-681
CAPEC-681: Exploitation of Improperly Controlled Hardware Security Identifiers
An adversary takes advantage of missing or incorrectly configured security identifiers (e.g., tokens), which are used for access control within a System-on-Chip (SoC), to read/write data or execute a given action.
Extended Description
A System-on-Chip (SoC) often implements a security identifier mechanism to differentiate what actions are allowed or disallowed when a transaction originates from an entity. However, these mechanisms may be exploitable due to any number of the following: The security identifiers are missing The security identifiers are incorrectly implemented or generated The security identifiers are generated with an obsolete encoding The security identifiers are generated and implemented correctly, but are improperly protected If the security identifiers leveraged by the SoC are missing or misconfigured, an adversary may be able to take advantage of this shortcoming to circumvent the intended access controls. This could result in the adversary gaining unintended access, performing a Denial of Service (DoS), escalating privileges, or spoofing actions from a trusted agent.
Mitigations
Review generation of security identifiers for design inconsistencies and common weaknesses.
Review security identifier decoders for design inconsistencies and common weaknesses.
Test security identifier definition, access, and programming flow in both pre-silicon and post-silicon environments.
Relationships with other CAPECs
Prerequisites
Awareness of the hardware being leveraged.
Access to the hardware being leveraged.
Related Weaknesses
CWE-1259: Improper Restriction of Security Token Assignment
CWE-1267: Policy Uses Obsolete Encoding
CWE-1270: Generation of Incorrect Security Tokens
CWE-1294: Insecure Security Identifier Mechanism
CWE-1302: Missing Source Identifier in Entity Transactions on a System-On-Chip (SOC)
