For debugging and troubleshooting a chip, several hardware design elements are often implemented, including: Various Test Access Ports (TAPs) allow boundary scan commands to be executed. For scanning the internal components of a chip, there are scan cells that allow the chip to be used as a "stimulus and response" mechanism. Chipmakers might create custom methods to observe the internal components of their chips by placing various tracing hubs within their chip and creating hierarchical or interconnected structures among those hubs.

Logic errors during design or synthesis could misconfigure the interconnection of the debug components, which could allow unintended access permissions.