Class weakness
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The product is designed with access restricted to certain information, but it does not sufficiently protect against an unauthorized actor with physical access to these areas.
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Sections of a product intended to have restricted access may be inadvertently or intentionally rendered accessible when the implemented physical protections are insufficient. The specific requirements around how robust the design of the physical protection mechanism needs to be depends on the type of product being protected. Selecting the correct physical protection mechanism and properly enforcing it through implementation and manufacturing are critical to the overall physical security of the product.
12 recorded CVEs are caused by CWE-1263 (Improper Physical Access Control). The highest-severity and most recent are shown first. 1 new CWE-1263 CVE has been recorded so far in 2026 (2 in 2025).
INSTAR 2K+/4K UART improper physical access control
What can happen when CWE-1263 is exploited.
Varies by Context
Affects: Confidentiality, Integrity, Access Control
Typically introduced during these phases of the software lifecycle.
Practical mitigations for CWE-1263, grouped by where in the lifecycle they apply.
Specific protection requirements depend strongly on contextual factors including the level of acceptable risk associated with compromise to the product's protection mechanism. Designers could incorporate anti-tampering measures that protect against or detect when the product has been tampered with.
The testing phase of the lifecycle should establish a method for determining whether the protection mechanism is sufficient to prevent unauthorized access.
Ensure that all protection mechanisms are fully activated at the time of manufacturing and distribution.
CAPEC attack patterns that exploit this weakness.
Common questions about CWE-1263.
The product is designed with access restricted to certain information, but it does not sufficiently protect against an unauthorized actor with physical access to these areas.
12 recorded CVEs are attributed to CWE-1263, including CVE-2024-48973, CVE-2023-38290, CVE-2024-36438.
Specific protection requirements depend strongly on contextual factors including the level of acceptable risk associated with compromise to the product's protection mechanism. Designers could incorporate anti-tampering measures that protect against or detect when the product has been tampered with.
Exploiting CWE-1263 can lead to: Varies by Context.
12 recorded CVEs are caused by CWE-1263; none are currently in CISA's KEV catalog of actively exploited flaws.
Weakness data is sourced from the MITRE CWE catalog (v4.20). CVE associations are aggregated and kept current by RadicalNotion.AI.
Get alerted the moment a new CWE-1263 vulnerability affects your stack, with AI-written analysis, severity context, and remediation guidance.