CAPEC-680: Exploitation of Improperly Controlled Registers
Description
An adversary exploits missing or incorrectly configured access control within registers to read/write data that is not meant to be obtained or modified by a user.
- Likelihood of attack
- Medium
- Typical severity
- High
- Abstraction
- DetailedA low-level, detailed pattern, often for a particular technology.
Mechanism of attack: Subvert Access Control
Prerequisites
- Awareness of the hardware being leveraged.
- Access to the hardware being leveraged.
Skills required
- HighIntricate knowledge of registers.
Consequences
- Integrity
Modify Data
- Confidentiality
Read Data
Mitigations
- Design proper access control policies for hardware register access from software and ensure these policies are implemented in accordance with the specified design.
- Ensure security lock bit protections are reviewed for design inconsistencies and common weaknesses.
- Test security lock programming flow in both pre-silicon and post-silicon environments.
- Leverage automated tools to test that values are not reprogrammable and that write-once fields lock on writing zeros.
- Ensure that measurement data is stored in registers that are read-only or otherwise have access controls that prevent modification by an untrusted agent.