The product's hardware-enforced access control for a particular resource improperly accounts for privilege discrepancies between control and write policies.

Integrated circuits and hardware engines may provide access to resources (device-configuration, encryption keys, etc.) belonging to trusted firmware or software modules (commonly set by a BIOS or a bootloader). These accesses are typically controlled and limited by the hardware. Hardware design access control is sometimes implemented using a policy. A policy defines which entity or agent may or may not be allowed to perform an action. When a system implements multiple levels of policies, a control policy may allow direct access to a resource as well as changes to the policies themselves.

Resources that include agents in their control policy but not in their write policy could unintentionally allow an untrusted agent to insert itself in the write policy register. Inclusion in the write policy register could allow a malicious or misbehaving agent write access to resources. This action could result in security compromises including leaked information, leaked encryption keys, or modification of device configuration.

This listing shows possible areas for which the given weakness could appear. These may be for specific named Languages, Operating Systems, Architectures, Paradigms, Technologies, or a class of such platforms. The platform is listed along with how frequently the given weakness appears for that instance.

Languages	Class: Not Language-Specific (Undetermined Prevalence)
Operating Systems	Class: Not OS-Specific (Undetermined Prevalence)
Architectures	Class: Not Architecture-Specific (Undetermined Prevalence)
Technologies	Class: Not Technology-Specific (Undetermined Prevalence)

Example 1

Consider a system of seven registers for storing and configuring an AES key for encryption or decryption.

Four 32-bit registers are used to store a 128-bit AES key. The names of those registers are AES_ENC_DEC_KEY_0, AES_ENC_DEC_KEY_1, AES_ENC_DEC_KEY_2, and AES_ENC_DEC_KEY_3. Collectively these are referred to as the AES Key registers.

Register	Field description
AES_ENC_DEC_KEY_0	AES key [0:31] for encryption or decryption Default 0x00000000
AES_ENC_DEC_KEY_1	AES key [32:63] for encryption or decryption Default 0x00000000
AES_ENC_DEC_KEY_2	AES key [64:95] for encryption or decryption Default 0x00000000
AES_ENC_DEC_KEY_3	AES key [96:127] for encryption or decryption Default 0x00000000

Three 32-bit registers are used to define access control for the AES-key registers. The names of those registers are AES_KEY_CONTROL_POLICY, AES_KEY_READ_POLICY, and AES_KEY_WRITE_POLICY. Collectively these registers are referred to as the Policy registers, and their functions are explained next.

• The AES_KEY_CONTROL_POLICY register defines which agents can write to the AES_KEY_READ_POLICY or AES_KEY_WRITE_POLICY registers.
• The AES_KEY_READ_POLICY register defines which agents can read the AES-key registers.
• The AES_KEY_WRITE_POLICY register defines which agents can write the AES key registers.

The preceding three policy registers encode access control at the bit level. Therefore a maximum of 32 agents can be defined (1 bit per agent). The value of the bit when set (i.e., "1") allows the respective action from an agent whose identity corresponds to the number of the bit. If clear (i.e., "0"), it disallows the respective action to that corresponding agent. For example, if bit 0 is set to "1" in the AES_KEY_READ_POLICY register, then agent 0 has permission to read the AES-key registers.

Consider that there are 4 agents named Agent 1, Agent 2, Agent 3, and Agent 4. For access control purposes Agent 1 is assigned to bit 1, Agent 2 to bit 2, Agent 3 to bit 3, and Agent 4 to bit 4. All agents are trusted except for Agent 3 who is untrusted. Also consider the register values in the below table.

The AES_KEY_CONTROL_POLICY register value is 0x00000018. In binary, the lower 8 bits will be 0001 1000, meaning that:

• Bits 3 and 4 are set, thus Agents 3 and 4 will have write access to AES_KEY_READ_POLICY or AES_KEY_WRITE_POLICY.
• All other bits are clear, hence agents other than 3 and 4 will not have access to write to AES_KEY_READ_POLICY or AES_KEY_WRITE_POLICY.

The AES_KEY_READ_POLICY register value is 0x00000002. In binary, the lower 8 bits will be 0000 0010, meaning that:

• Bit 1 is set, thus Agent 1 will be able to read the AES key registers.

The AES_KEY_WRITE_POLICY register value is 0x00000004. In binary, the lower 8 bits will be 0000 0100, meaning that:

• Bit 2 is set, thus Agent 2 will be able to write the AES Key registers.

The configured access control policy for Agents 1,2,3,4 is summarized in the table below.

Agent	Read	Write	Control
Agent 1	Allowed	Not Allowed	Not Allowed
Agent 2	Not Allowed	Allowed	Not Allowed
Agent 3	Not Allowed	Not Allowed	Allowed
Agent 4	Not Allowed	Not Allowed	Allowed

At this point, Agents 3 and 4 can only configure which agents can read AES keys and which agents can write AES keys. Agents 3 and 4 cannot read or write AES keys - just configure access control.

Now, recall Agent 3 is untrusted. As explained above, the value of the AES_KEY_CONTROL_POLICY register gives agent 3 access to write to the AES_KEY_WRITE_POLICY register. Agent 3 can use this write access to add itself to the AES_KEY_WRITE_POLICY register. This is accomplished by Agent 3 writing the value 0x0000000C. In binary, the lower 8 bits are 0000 1100, meaning that bits 2 and 3 will be set. Thus, Agent 3 will be given the ability to write to the AES Key registers. If Agent 3 does not set bit 2, this would prevent Agent 2 from having write access, which could cause operational failures that could expose the attack (or be used for a denial of service).

If the AES_KEY_CONTROL_POLICY register value is 0x00000010, the lower 8 bits will be 0001 0000. This will give Agent 4, a trusted agent, write access to AES_KEY_WRITE_POLICY, but Agent 3, who is untrusted, will not have write access. The Policy register values should therefore be as follows:

This MemberOf Relationships table shows additional CWE Categories and Views that reference this weakness as a member. This information is often useful in understanding where a weakness fits within the context of external information sources.