Improper Isolation of Shared Resources on System-on-a-Chip (SoC)

This vulnerability occurs when a System-on-a-Chip (SoC) fails to properly separate shared hardware resources between secure (trusted) and non-secure (untrusted) components.

Modern SoCs pack many features but have a limited number of physical connections (pins). To overcome this, they use a technique called pin multiplexing, where a single pin can be configured for different functions at different times. Similarly, internal resources like memory buses or hardware accelerators are often shared across the chip. When these shared resources aren't rigorously isolated, an untrusted agent (like a low-privilege app or peripheral) can potentially access or interfere with resources reserved for trusted system functions, leading to data leaks or system compromise. For developers, this means security cannot rely solely on software boundaries; hardware-level isolation mechanisms must be correctly configured and audited. Managing these low-level configurations at scale across an entire product fleet is challenging. An ASPM platform like Plexicus can help by detecting such insecure hardware/software interactions and providing prioritized, actionable insights for remediation across your entire application stack.