CWE - CWE-1272: Sensitive Information Uncleared Before Debug/Power State Transition (4.18)

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CWE Glossary Definition

CWE-1272: Sensitive Information Uncleared Before Debug/Power State Transition

Weakness ID: 1272

Vulnerability Mapping: ALLOWED This CWE ID may be used to map to real-world vulnerabilities
Abstraction: Base Base - a weakness that is still mostly independent of a resource or technology, but with sufficient details to provide specific methods for detection and prevention. Base level weaknesses typically describe issues in terms of 2 or 3 of the following dimensions: behavior, property, technology, language, and resource.

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Description

The product performs a power or debug state transition, but it does not clear sensitive information that should no longer be accessible due to changes to information access restrictions.

Extended Description

A device or system frequently employs many power and sleep states during its normal operation (e.g., normal power, additional power, low power, hibernate, deep sleep, etc.). A device also may be operating within a debug condition. State transitions can happen from one power or debug state to another. If there is information available in the previous state which should not be available in the next state and is not properly removed before the transition into the next state, sensitive information may leak from the system.

Common Consequences

Section HelpThis table specifies different individual consequences associated with the weakness. The Scope identifies the application security area that is violated, while the Impact describes the negative technical impact that arises if an adversary succeeds in exploiting this weakness. The Likelihood provides information about how likely the specific consequence is expected to be seen relative to the other consequences in the list. For example, there may be high likelihood that a weakness will be exploited to achieve a certain impact, but a low likelihood that it will be exploited to achieve a different impact.

Impact	Details
Read Memory; Read Application Data	Scope: Confidentiality, Integrity, Availability, Access Control, Accountability, Authentication, Authorization, Non-Repudiation Likelihood: High Sensitive information may be used to unlock additional capabilities of the device and take advantage of hidden functionalities which could be used to compromise device security.

Potential Mitigations

Phase(s)	Mitigation
Architecture and Design; Implementation	During state transitions, information not needed in the next state should be removed before the transition to the next state.

Relationships

Section Help This table shows the weaknesses and high level categories that are related to this weakness. These relationships are defined as ChildOf, ParentOf, MemberOf and give insight to similar items that may exist at higher and lower levels of abstraction. In addition, relationships such as PeerOf and CanAlsoBe are defined to show similar weaknesses that the user may want to explore.

Relevant to the view "Research Concepts" (View-1000)

Nature	Type	ID	Name
ChildOf	Base Base - a weakness that is still mostly independent of a resource or technology, but with sufficient details to provide specific methods for detection and prevention. Base level weaknesses typically describe issues in terms of 2 or 3 of the following dimensions: behavior, property, technology, language, and resource.	226	Sensitive Information in Resource Not Removed Before Reuse
CanPrecede	Class Class - a weakness that is described in a very abstract fashion, typically independent of any specific language or technology. More specific than a Pillar Weakness, but more general than a Base Weakness. Class level weaknesses typically describe issues in terms of 1 or 2 of the following dimensions: behavior, property, and resource.	200	Exposure of Sensitive Information to an Unauthorized Actor

Relevant to the view "Hardware Design" (View-1194)

Nature	Type	ID	Name
MemberOf	Category Category - a CWE entry that contains a set of other entries that share a common characteristic.	1207	Debug and Test Problems

Modes Of Introduction

Section HelpThe different Modes of Introduction provide information about how and when this weakness may be introduced. The Phase identifies a point in the life cycle at which introduction may occur, while the Note provides a typical scenario related to introduction during the given phase.

Phase	Note
Architecture and Design

Applicable Platforms

Section HelpThis 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

VHDL (Undetermined Prevalence)

Verilog (Undetermined Prevalence)

Class: Hardware Description Language (Undetermined Prevalence)

Operating Systems

Class: Not OS-Specific (Undetermined Prevalence)

Architectures

Class: Not Architecture-Specific (Undetermined Prevalence)

Technologies

Class: Not Technology-Specific (Undetermined Prevalence)

Demonstrative Examples

Example 1

This example shows how an attacker can take advantage of an incorrect state transition.

Suppose a device is transitioning from state A to state B. During state A, it can read certain private keys from the hidden fuses that are only accessible in state A but not in state B. The device reads the keys, performs operations using those keys, then transitions to state B, where those private keys should no longer be accessible.

(bad code)

Example Language: Other

During the transition from A to B, the device does not scrub the memory.

After the transition to state B, even though the private keys are no longer accessible directly from the fuses in state B, they can be accessed indirectly by reading the memory that contains the private keys.

(good code)

Example Language: Other

For transition from state A to state B, remove information which should not be available once the transition is complete.

Selected Observed Examples

Note: this is a curated list of examples for users to understand the variety of ways in which this weakness can be introduced. It is not a complete list of all CVEs that are related to this CWE entry.

Reference	Description
CVE-2020-12926	Product software does not set a flag as per TPM specifications, thereby preventing a failed authorization attempt from being recorded after a loss of power.

Weakness Ordinalities

Ordinality	Description
Primary	(where the weakness exists independent of other weaknesses)

Detection Methods

Method	Details
Manual Analysis	Write a known pattern into each sensitive location. Enter the power/debug state in question. Read data back from the sensitive locations. If the reads are successful, and the data is the same as the pattern that was originally written, the test fails and the device needs to be fixed. Note that this test can likely be automated. Effectiveness: High

Functional Areas

Power

Memberships

Section HelpThis 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.

Nature	Type	ID	Name
MemberOf	ViewView - a subset of CWE entries that provides a way of examining CWE content. The two main view structures are Slices (flat lists) and Graphs (containing relationships between entries).	1343	Weaknesses in the 2021 CWE Most Important Hardware Weaknesses List
MemberOf	CategoryCategory - a CWE entry that contains a set of other entries that share a common characteristic.	1416	Comprehensive Categorization: Resource Lifecycle Management
MemberOf	CategoryCategory - a CWE entry that contains a set of other entries that share a common characteristic.	1433	2025 MIHW Supplement: Expert Insights

Vulnerability Mapping Notes

Usage ALLOWED

(this CWE ID may be used to map to real-world vulnerabilities)

Reason Acceptable-Use

Rationale

This CWE entry is at the Base level of abstraction, which is a preferred level of abstraction for mapping to the root causes of vulnerabilities.

Comments

Carefully read both the name and description to ensure that this mapping is an appropriate fit. Do not try to 'force' a mapping to a lower-level Base/Variant simply to comply with this preferred level of abstraction.

Related Attack Patterns

CAPEC-ID	Attack Pattern Name
CAPEC-150	Collect Data from Common Resource Locations
CAPEC-37	Retrieve Embedded Sensitive Data
CAPEC-545	Pull Data from System Resources
CAPEC-546	Incomplete Data Deletion in a Multi-Tenant Environment

References

[REF-1220] Zhenyu Ning and Fengwei Zhang. "Understanding the Security of ARM Debugging Features". 2019 IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy (SP). 2019年05月22日.
<https://www.computer.org/csdl/proceedings-article/sp/2019/666000a602/1dlwieBPZ2o>. (URL validated: 2025年08月04日)

Content History

Submissions
Submission Date	Submitter	Organization
2020年05月31日 (CWE 4.1, 2020年02月24日)	Parbati Kumar Manna, Hareesh Khattri, Arun Kanuparthi	Intel Corporation
2020年05月31日 (CWE 4.1, 2020年02月24日)
Modifications
Modification Date	Modifier	Organization
2025年09月09日 (CWE 4.18, 2025年09月09日)	CWE Content Team	MITRE
2025年09月09日 (CWE 4.18, 2025年09月09日)	updated References, Relationships
2025年04月03日 (CWE 4.17, 2025年04月03日)	CWE Content Team	MITRE
2025年04月03日 (CWE 4.17, 2025年04月03日)	updated Demonstrative_Examples
2023年06月29日	CWE Content Team	MITRE
2023年06月29日	updated Mapping_Notes
2023年04月27日	CWE Content Team	MITRE
2023年04月27日	updated Relationships
2022年10月13日	CWE Content Team	MITRE
2022年10月13日	updated Applicable_Platforms
2021年10月28日	CWE Content Team	MITRE
2021年10月28日	updated Common_Consequences, Demonstrative_Examples, Description, Detection_Factors, Observed_Examples, Potential_Mitigations, References, Relationships, Weakness_Ordinalities
2021年03月15日	CWE Content Team	MITRE
2021年03月15日	updated Functional_Areas
2020年08月20日	CWE Content Team	MITRE
2020年08月20日	updated Applicable_Platforms, Common_Consequences, Demonstrative_Examples, Description, Name, Potential_Mitigations, Related_Attack_Patterns, Relationships
Previous Entry Names
Change Date	Previous Entry Name
2020年08月20日	Debug/Power State Transitions Leak Information

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Page Last Updated: September 09, 2025

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