The credentials necessary for unlocking a device are shared across multiple parties and may expose sensitive information.

"Unlocking a device" often means activating certain unadvertised debug and manufacturer-specific capabilities of a device using sensitive credentials. Unlocking a device might be necessary for the purpose of troubleshooting device problems. For example, suppose a device contains the ability to dump the content of the full system memory by disabling the memory-protection mechanisms. Since this is a highly security-sensitive capability, this capability is "locked" in the production part. Unless the device gets unlocked by supplying the proper credentials, the debug capabilities are not available. For cases where the chip designer, chip manufacturer (fabricator), and manufacturing and assembly testers are all employed by the same company, the risk of compromise of the credentials is greatly reduced. However, the risk is greater when the chip designer is employed by one company, the chip manufacturer is employed by another company (a foundry), and the assemblers and testers are employed by yet a third company. Since these different companies will need to perform various tests on the device to verify correct device function, they all need to share the unlock key. Unfortunately, the level of secrecy and policy might be quite different at each company, greatly increasing the risk of sensitive credentials being compromised.

Primary

Integration

Manufacturing

Confidentiality
Integrity
Availability
Access Control
Accountability
Authentication
Authorization
Non-Repudiation
Modify Memory
Read Memory
Modify Files or Directories
Read Files or Directories
Modify Application Data
Execute Unauthorized Code or Commands
Gain Privileges or Assume Identity
Bypass Protection Mechanism
Once unlock credentials are compromised, an attacker can use the credentials to unlock the device and gain unauthorized access to the hidden functionalities protected by those credentials.

Integration
Ensure the unlock credentials are shared with the minimum number of parties and with utmost secrecy. To limit the risk associated with compromised credentials, where possible, the credentials should be part-specific.

Manufacturing
Ensure the unlock credentials are shared with the minimum number of parties and with utmost secrecy. To limit the risk associated with compromised credentials, where possible, the credentials should be part-specific.

This example shows how an attacker can take advantage of compromised credentials.
Suppose a semiconductor chipmaker, "C", uses the foundry "F" for fabricating its chips. Now, F has many other customers in addition to C, and some of the other customers are much smaller companies. F has dedicated teams for each of its customers, but somehow it mixes up the unlock credentials and sends the unlock credentials of C to the wrong team. This other team does not take adequate precautions to protect the credentials that have nothing to do with them, and eventually the unlock credentials of C get leaked.
When the credentials of multiple organizations are stored together, exposure to third parties occurs frequently.
Vertical integration of a production company is one effective method of protecting sensitive credentials. Where vertical integration is not possible, strict access control and need-to-know are methods which can be implemented to reduce these risks.

Allowed
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.
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.

This entry is still under development and will continue to see updates and content improvements.

Parbati Kumar Manna, Hareesh Khattri, Arun Kanuparthi
Intel Corporation
2020-05-29
4.1
2020-02-24

CWE Content Team
MITRE
2020-08-20
updated Demonstrative_Examples, Description, Related_Attack_Patterns

CWE Content Team
MITRE
2021-10-28
updated Demonstrative_Examples, Description

CWE Content Team
MITRE
2022-10-13
updated Description

CWE Content Team
MITRE
2023-04-27
updated Relationships

CWE Content Team
MITRE
2023-06-29
updated Mapping_Notes

CWE Content Team
MITRE
2025-04-03
4.17
2025-04-03
updated Demonstrative_Examples

CWE Content Team
MITRE
2025-12-11
4.19
2025-12-11
updated Weakness_Ordinalities