CAPEC-702 — Exploiting Incorrect Chaining or Granularity of Hardware Debug Components
CAPEC-702: Exploiting Incorrect Chaining or Granularity of Hardware Debug Components
MITRE CAPEC attack pattern
| Status | Draft |
| Typical severity | Medium |
| Likelihood of attack | Low |
| Catalogue | CAPEC 3.9 (2023-01-24) |
Description
An adversary exploits incorrect chaining or granularity of hardware debug components in order to gain unauthorized access to debug functionality on a chip. This happens when authorization is not checked on a per function basis and is assumed for a chain or group of debug functionality.
Where this sits in the chain
A finding maps to a weakness (CWE), a weakness is exploited by an attack pattern (CAPEC), and an attack pattern shows up in ATT&CK as observed adversary behaviour. This page is the middle hop.
Weaknesses exploited: CWE-1296
Prerequisites
- Hardware device has an exposed debug interface
Skills required
- Medium: Ability to identify physical debug interfaces on a device
- Medium: Ability to operate devices to scan and connect to an exposed debug interface
Consequences
- Confidentiality: Read Data
- Integrity: Modify Data
- Access Control, Authorization: Gain Privileges
Mitigations
- Implement: Ensure that debug components are properly chained, and their granularity is maintained at different authorization levels
- Perform Post-silicon validation tests at various authorization levels to ensure that debug components are only accessible to authorized users