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This paper by Ian McLoughlin, published in IEEE in 2004, explores the serious threat that reverse engineering (RE) poses to embedded systems. Although RE can drive innovation, it ultimately undermines the economic benefits of product development by enabling competitors to cheaply replicate designs. The paper discusses design piracy, potential attack vectors, and discusses strategies to mitigate the risks associated with RE, including increasing the costs of reverse engineering and employing specialized security techniques. Understanding these threats is crucial for safeguarding valuable intellectual property in embedded devices.
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Embedded Systems Presentation David Tietz EEL6935 Spring 2009
Paper Selected: “Secure Embedded Systems: The Threat of Reverse Engineering” • ByIan McLoughlin • Published in IEEE • 2004
Reverse Engineering (RE) • What is it? • Purpose: To Gain A Better Understanding For Design Piracy
Methods of Piracy • Network attacks • Insider attacks • Head-hunters • Full on RE process
Creating A Product • A company spends time and money in development of a product • The company releases the product • The company benefits from sales • In time, competition enters the market Which helps to improve the original design.
Why RE is bad economics • A company spends time and money in development of a product • The company releases the product • A competitor cheaply and rapidly reverse engineers the pioneering design Can greatly undercut the selling price • Hinders risk-taking
Economic Analysis • Foiling RE takes money and time • Best outcome: You stop them You never see the benefit Competitors break into the market anyhow • Difficult to sell a strategy • Even more difficult to gauge success
Bad for Embedded Systems • By nature, they are generally small, portable, widely available devices • They tend to embody valuable intellectual property designs
Goal • Maximize reverse engineering cost • Keep increased development cost low
Reverse Engineering Process • Functionality • Physical Structure • Bill of Materials • System Architecture • Detailed Physical Layout • Schematic of Electrical Connectivity • Software
How to Increase RE Costs • Additional time taken to reverse engineer the system • Greater levels of expertise required • The need for specialized equipment
RE Mitigation • Not possible to completely prevent it • Two Methods: Passive Active
RE Mitigation Costs • Increases NRE Costs • Increase in BOM • Delay in time to market
Low Cost Mitigation Techniques • Protecting documentation • Monitor and limit information that employees may inadvertently provide • Custom casings • Missing silk screen • Wiring unused pins • Leaving unused planes on layers of the PCB
RE Mitigation of Programmable Devices • Custom Silicon • Ball Grid Array (BGA) Packaging • Back to Back BGA Layout
RE Mitigation of Programmable Devices • Don’t build ports onto PCB (jtag,etc) • Some provide security setting prevent readout of programmed bit stream • Use mesh overlays in custom ASICs
RE Mitigation of Programmable Devices FPGAs: • Use Antifuse devices • Use encryption for flashing Flash: • Fill Unused space • Encrypt
