CWE-1258 — Vulnerability Class 13

13 vulnerabilities classified as CWE-1258. AI Chinese analysis included.

CWE-1258 represents a critical hardware-level weakness where security-sensitive data, such as cryptographic keys and intermediate computation values, remains exposed in temporary registers when a device enters debug mode. This vulnerability is typically exploited by attackers who gain physical or remote access to the debug interface, allowing them to read these uncleared memory states and extract confidential information without needing to break the cryptographic algorithms themselves. To mitigate this risk, developers must implement rigorous hardware design practices that ensure all sensitive registers are automatically cleared or masked upon entering any debug state. Additionally, secure boot processes and strict access controls for debug ports are essential to prevent unauthorized entry into these modes, ensuring that transient security data does not persist in a way that compromises the entire system’s integrity.

MITRE CWE Description

The hardware does not fully clear security-sensitive values, such as keys and intermediate values in cryptographic operations, when debug mode is entered. Security sensitive values, keys, intermediate steps of cryptographic operations, etc. are stored in temporary registers in the hardware. If these values are not cleared when debug mode is entered they may be accessed by a debugger allowing sensitive information to be accessible by untrusted parties.

Common Consequences (2)

Confidentiality Read Memory

Access Control Bypass Protection Mechanism

Mitigations (1)

Architecture and Design Whenever debug mode is enabled, all registers containing sensitive assets must be cleared.

Examples (2)

A cryptographic core in a System-On-a-Chip (SoC) is used for cryptographic acceleration and implements several cryptographic operations (e.g., computation of AES encryption and decryption, SHA-256, HMAC, etc.). The keys for these operations or the intermediate values are stored in registers internal to the cryptographic core. These internal registers are in the Memory Mapped Input Output (MMIO) sp…

In the above scenario, registers that store keys and intermediate values of cryptographic operations are not cleared when system enters debug mode. An untrusted actor running a debugger may read the contents of these registers and gain access to secret keys and other sensitive cryptographic information.

Bad · Other

Whenever the chip enters debug mode, all registers containing security-sensitive data are be cleared rendering them unreadable.

Good · Other

The following code example is extracted from the AES wrapper module, aes1_wrapper, of the Hack@DAC'21 buggy OpenPiton System-on-Chip (SoC). Within this wrapper module are four memory-mapped registers: core_key, core_key0, core_key1, and core_key2. Core_key0, core_key1, and core_key2 hold encryption/decryption keys. The core_key register selects a key and sends it to the underlying AES module to ex…

module aes1_wrapper #( ... assign core_key0 = debug_mode_i ? 'b0 : { key_reg0[7], key_reg0[6], key_reg0[5], key_reg0[4], key_reg0[3], key_reg0[2], key_reg0[1], key_reg0[0]}; assign core_key1 = { key_reg1[7], key_reg1[6], key_reg1[5], key_reg1[4], key_reg1[3], key_reg1[2], key_reg1[1], key_reg1[0]}; ... endmodule

Bad · Verilog

module aes1_wrapper #( ... assign core_key0 = debug_mode_i ? 'b0 : { key_reg0[7], key_reg0[6], key_reg0[5], key_reg0[4], key_reg0[3], key_reg0[2], key_reg0[1], key_reg0[0]}; assign core_key1 = debug_mode_i ? 'b0 : { key_reg1[7], key_reg1[6], key_reg1[5], key_reg1[4], key_reg1[3], key_reg1[2], key_reg1[1], key_reg1[0]}; ... endmodule

Good · Verilog

CVE ID	Title	CVSS	Severity	Published
CVE-2026-65127	NVIDIA Linux控制器调试信息泄露漏洞 — Infrastructure Controller	4.1	Medium	2026-09-22
CVE-2026-79727	Dell Secure Connect Gateway 调试信息泄露漏洞 — Secure Connect Gateway 5.0 - Application	3.3	Low	2026-09-09
CVE-2026-80239	Dell Secure Connect Gateway 调试信息泄露漏洞 — Secure Connect Gateway 5.0 - Application	2.4	Low	2026-09-09
CVE-2026-66432	WordPress WPJAM Basic plugin <= 7.0.2.1 - Sensitive Data Exposure vulnerability — WPJAM Basic	7.5	High	2026-08-13
CVE-2026-52696	WordPress JetBlog plugin <= 2.4.8 - Sensitive Data Exposure vulnerability — JetBlog	7.5	High	2026-06-17
CVE-2025-14551	Senstive information disclosure was affecting subiquity — Ubuntu	6.2^AI	Medium ^AI	2026-04-09
CVE-2025-15480	Senstive information disclosure was affecting ubuntu-desktop-provision — Ubuntu	5.5^AI	Medium ^AI	2026-04-09
CVE-2026-26948	Dell Integrated Dell Remote Access Controller 安全漏洞 — Integrated Dell Remote Access Controller	4.9	Medium	2026-03-18
CVE-2025-26482	Dell PowerEdge Server BIOS和Dell iDRAC9 安全漏洞 — PowerEdge R770	4.9	Medium	2025-09-25
CVE-2025-32257	WordPress 1 Click WordPress Migration plugin <= 2.5.7 - Sensitive Data Exposure vulnerability — 1 Click WordPress Migration	5.3	Medium	2025-04-04
CVE-2023-48308	Calendar app returns full stacktrace when an error happens while editing appointment — security-advisories	3.5	Low	2023-12-21
CVE-2022-39292	Exposure of sensitive Slack webhook URLs in debug logs and traces — slack-morphism-rust	7.5	High	2022-10-10
CVE-2022-31162	Slack Morphism for Rust before 0.41.0 can accidentally leak Slack OAuth client information in application debug logs — slack-morphism-rust	7.5	High	2022-07-21

Vulnerabilities classified as CWE-1258 represent 13 CVEs. The CWE taxonomy describes the weakness; review individual CVEs for product-specific impact.