CWE-1233: Security-Sensitive Hardware Controls with… | Glexia
CWE-1233 (Security-Sensitive Hardware Controls with Missing Lock Bit Protection) weakness overview with consequences, detection methods, mitigations, related CVEs…
Glexia's Take · Automated analysis
CWE-1233: Security-Sensitive Hardware Controls with Missing Lock Bit Protection
Security-Sensitive Hardware Controls with Missing Lock Bit Protection represents a recurring weakness pattern that can create exploitable paths when design, validation, or implementation controls are missing.
Executive Impact
- Access Control: Modify Memory: System Configuration protected by the lock bit can be modified even when the lock is set.
Developer Pattern
CWE-1233 is the kind of defect developers can usually prevent with explicit validation, safer framework defaults, and tests that exercise hostile input or unsafe state transitions.
Automation confidence
high confidence from CWE-1233, 4.20.
Generated from the cited source records. This long-tail analysis has not been individually reviewed by a named human.
Official CWE Definition
CWE-1233: Security-Sensitive Hardware Controls with Missing Lock Bit Protection
The product uses a register lock bit protection mechanism, but it does not ensure that the lock bit prevents modification of system registers or controls that perform changes to important hardware system configuration.
Developer And Remediation Guidance
How teams prevent and detect this weakness
Causes
- Consider the example design below for a digital thermal sensor that detects overheating of the silicon and triggers system shutdown. The system critical temperature limit (CRITICAL_TEMP_LIMIT) and thermal sensor calibration (TEMP_SENSOR_CALIB) data have to be programmed by the firmware.
Remediation
- Architecture and Design,Implementation,Testing:
Detection
- Manual Analysis: Set the lock bit. Attempt to modify the information protected by the lock bit. If the information is changed, implement a design fix. Retest. Also, attempt to indirectly clear the lock bit or bypass it.
Mappings
Related CVEs, CWEs, and ATT&CK context
ATT&CK Relevance
ATT&CK relevance is shown only when reviewed or responsibly inferred.