What is CWE-1256: Improper Restriction of Software Interfaces to Hardware Features?+
CWE-1256: Improper Restriction of Software Interfaces to Hardware Features is a Common Weakness Enumeration (CWE) entry maintained by MITRE. The product provides software-controllable device functionality for capabilities such as power and clock management, but it does not properly limit functionality that can lead to modification of hardware memory or register bits, or the ability to observe physical side channels. It is frequently assumed that physical attacks such as fault injection and side-channel analysis require an attacker to have physical access to the target device. This assumption may be false if the device has improperly secured power management features, or similar features. For mobile devices, minimizing power consumption is critical, but these devices run a wide variety of applications with different performance requirements. Software-controllable mechanisms to dynamically scale device voltage and frequency and monitor power consumption are common features in today's chipsets, but they also enable attackers to mount fault injection and side-channel attacks without having physical access to the device. Fault injection attacks involve strategic manipulation of bits in a device to achieve a desired effect such as skipping an authentication step, elevating privileges, or altering the output of a cryptographic operation. Manipulation of the device clock and voltage supply is a well-known technique to inject faults and is cheap to implement with physical device access. Poorly protected power management features allow these attacks to be performed from software. Other features, such as the ability to write repeatedly to DRAM at a rapid rate from unprivileged software, can result in bit flips in other memory locations (Rowhammer, [REF-1083]). Side channel analysis requires gathering measurement traces of physical quantities such as power consumption. Modern processors often include power metering capabilities in the hardware itself (e.g., Intel RAPL) which if not adequately protected enable attackers to gather measurements necessary for performing side-channel attacks from software.
What are the security consequences of Improper Restriction of Software Interfaces to Hardware Features?+
If exploited, CWE-1256 (Improper Restriction of Software Interfaces to Hardware Features) it can compromise Integrity, leading to outcomes such as Modify Memory, Modify Application Data and Bypass Protection Mechanism.
How do you prevent or mitigate Improper Restriction of Software Interfaces to Hardware Features?+
Recommended mitigations for CWE-1256 include: Ensure proper access control mechanisms protect software-controllable features altering physical operating conditions such as clock frequency and voltage.
How is Improper Restriction of Software Interfaces to Hardware Features detected?+
CWE-1256 can be detected using Manual Analysis and Automated Dynamic Analysis. Combining automated tooling with manual review typically yields the best coverage.
Which programming languages are affected by Improper Restriction of Software Interfaces to Hardware Features?+
CWE-1256 commonly affects Not Language-Specific. Note that weaknesses are often language-agnostic patterns, so secure coding practices apply broadly.
What are real-world examples of Improper Restriction of Software Interfaces to Hardware Features?+
MITRE documents real CVEs mapped to CWE-1256, including CVE-2019-11157, CVE-2020-8694, CVE-2020-8695, CVE-2020-12912 and CVE-2015-0565. You can look up the full details of each CVE, including CVSS scores and remediation guidance, on our CVE Lookup tool.
What is the difference between a CWE and a CVE?+
A CWE (Common Weakness Enumeration) like CWE-1256 describes a category of software weakness — the underlying flaw type. A CVE (Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures) identifies a specific, real-world vulnerability in a particular product. In short, a CWE is the kind of mistake, and a CVE is an instance of that mistake being found in software.