Bringing the Curtain Down on Flash Protection in Obscure Microcontrollers through Fault Injection

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Presented at Shmoocon 2023 by

Christopher Hewitt

The vast proliferation of inexpensive and often unusual electronic devices on online marketplaces presents a very real challenge to the focus of the intrepid engineer. With only a couple of clicks, an interesting part for a radio project can soon be on its way in a shipping container from a distant country. More often than not, however, these devices don’t entirely work as anticipated and need to be modified. If the firmware driving a device is protected by a security measure that prevents it from being repurposed, a design can suddenly take an unexpected detour. This presentation will demonstrate approaches and techniques for successfully bypassing flash protection in an obscure microcontroller family.