The technology disclosed herein comprises a processor; a memory to store data and a plurality of error correcting code (ECC) bits associated with the data; and a memory controller coupled to the memory, the memory controller to receive a write request from the processor and, when an access control field is selected in the write request, perform an exclusive OR (XOR) operation on the plurality of ECC bits and a fixed encoding pattern to generate a plurality of encoded ECC bits and store the data and the plurality of encoded ECC bits in the memory.