CWE-1257 Base Incompleto

Improper Access Control Applied to Mirrored or Aliased Memory Regions

This vulnerability occurs when a hardware design maps the same physical memory to multiple addresses (aliasing or mirroring) but fails to apply consistent read/write permissions across all these…

Definición

What is CWE-1257?

This vulnerability occurs when a hardware design maps the same physical memory to multiple addresses (aliasing or mirroring) but fails to apply consistent read/write permissions across all these addresses. An attacker blocked from accessing a protected memory region might still reach the same data through its unprotected aliased address, bypassing security controls.
Hardware designs often use memory aliasing for legitimate purposes like redundancy, fault tolerance, or simplifying address decoding logic. However, a critical security flaw emerges when the access control logic checks permissions for only one address path and not its aliases. This creates an inconsistent security state where the same physical memory cell has different protection levels depending on which logical address is used to access it. From a developer or attacker perspective, this inconsistency becomes an exploitable bypass. An untrusted process or agent denied access to a primary address can simply target the alternate, aliased address to read or write protected memory. Furthermore, if an attacker can manipulate system address mapping registers, they might be able to create malicious aliases themselves, fundamentally undermining the hardware's memory isolation guarantees.
Impacto en el mundo real

Real-world CVEs caused by CWE-1257

Todavía no hay CVEs públicos enlazados a esta CWE en el catálogo de MITRE.

Cómo lo explotan los atacantes

Ruta del atacante paso a paso

  1. 1

    Identifica una ruta de código que maneje entrada no confiable sin validación.

  2. 2

    Crea un payload que ejercite el comportamiento inseguro — inyección, traversal, overflow o abuso de lógica.

  3. 3

    Envía el payload a través de una solicitud normal y observa la reacción de la aplicación.

  4. 4

    Itera hasta que la respuesta filtre datos, ejecute código del atacante o escale privilegios.

Ejemplo de código vulnerable

Vulnerable Other

In a System-on-a-Chip (SoC) design the system fabric uses 16 bit addresses. An IP unit (Unit_A) has 4 kilobyte of internal memory which is mapped into a 16 kilobyte address range in the system fabric address map. | | | | System Address | Mapped to | | 0x0000 - 0x3FFF | Unit_A registers : 0x0000 - 0x0FFF | | 0x4000 - 0xFFFF | Other IPs & Memory | To protect the register controls in Unit_A unprivileged software is blocked from accessing addresses between 0x0000 - 0x0FFF. The address decoder of Unit_A masks off the higher order address bits and decodes only the lower 12 bits for computing the offset into the 4 kilobyte internal memory space.

Vulnerable Other 
In this design the aliased memory address ranges are these:



0x0000 - 0x0FFF


0x1000 - 0x1FFF


0x2000 - 0x2FFF


0x3000 - 0x3FFF


 The same register can be accessed using four different addresses: 0x0000, 0x1000, 0x2000, 0x3000. 


 The system address filter only blocks access to range 0x0000 - 0x0FFF and does not block access to the aliased addresses in 0x1000 - 0x3FFF range. Thus, untrusted software can leverage the aliased memory addresses to bypass the memory protection.
Ejemplo de código seguro

Secure Other

Seguro Other 
In this design the aliased memory addresses (0x1000 - 0x3FFF) could be blocked from all system software access since they are not used by software. 


 Alternately, the MPU logic can be changed to apply the memory protection policies to the full address range mapped to Unit_A (0x0000 - 0x3FFF).
What changed: the unsafe sink is replaced (or the input is validated/escaped) so the same payload no longer triggers the weakness.
Lista de prevención

How to prevent CWE-1257

  • Architecture and Design / Implementation The checks should be applied for consistency access rights between primary memory regions and any mirrored or aliased memory regions. If different memory protection units (MPU) are protecting the aliased regions, their protected range definitions and policies should be synchronized.
  • Architecture and Design / Implementation The controls that allow enabling memory aliases or changing the size of mapped memory regions should only be programmable by trusted software components.
Señales de detección

How to detect CWE-1257

SAST High

Ejecuta análisis estático (SAST) sobre el código buscando el patrón inseguro en el flujo de datos.

DAST Moderate

Ejecuta pruebas dinámicas de seguridad de aplicaciones (DAST) contra el endpoint en vivo.

Runtime Moderate

Vigila los logs en tiempo de ejecución para detectar trazas de excepción inusuales, entradas malformadas o intentos de bypass de autorización.

Code review Moderate

Revisión de código: marca cualquier código nuevo que maneje entrada desde esta superficie sin usar los helpers validados del framework.

Auto-corrección de Plexicus

Plexicus detecta automáticamente CWE-1257 y abre un PR de corrección en menos de 60 segundos.

Codex Remedium escanea cada commit, identifica esta debilidad concreta y entrega un pull request listo para revisión con el parche. Sin tickets. Sin traspasos.

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Preguntas frecuentes

Frequently asked questions

¿Qué es CWE-1257?

This vulnerability occurs when a hardware design maps the same physical memory to multiple addresses (aliasing or mirroring) but fails to apply consistent read/write permissions across all these addresses. An attacker blocked from accessing a protected memory region might still reach the same data through its unprotected aliased address, bypassing security controls.

¿Qué gravedad tiene CWE-1257?

MITRE no ha publicado una calificación de probabilidad de explotación para esta debilidad. Trátala como de impacto medio hasta que tu modelo de amenazas demuestre lo contrario.

¿Qué lenguajes o plataformas se ven afectados por CWE-1257?

MITRE lists the following affected platforms: Not OS-Specific, Not Architecture-Specific, Memory Hardware, Processor Hardware, Microcontroller Hardware, Network on Chip Hardware, System on Chip.

¿Cómo puedo prevenir CWE-1257?

The checks should be applied for consistency access rights between primary memory regions and any mirrored or aliased memory regions. If different memory protection units (MPU) are protecting the aliased regions, their protected range definitions and policies should be synchronized. The controls that allow enabling memory aliases or changing the size of mapped memory regions should only be programmable by trusted software components.

¿Cómo detecta y corrige Plexicus CWE-1257?

El motor SAST de Plexicus detecta la firma de flujo de datos para CWE-1257 en cada commit. Cuando hay coincidencia, nuestro agente Codex Remedium abre un PR de corrección con el código corregido, las pruebas y un resumen de una línea para el revisor.

¿Dónde puedo aprender más sobre CWE-1257?

MITRE publica la definición canónica en https://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/1257.html. También puedes consultar la documentación de OWASP y NIST para guías relacionadas.

Debilidades relacionadas

Weaknesses related to CWE-1257

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CWE-1233 Hermano

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CWE-1252 Hermano

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CWE-1259 Hermano

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CWE-1260 Hermano

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Recursos

Further reading

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