Source URL: https://www.tomshardware.com/raspberry-pi/it-looks-like-the-raspberry-pi-rp2350-hacking-challenge-has-been-beaten-hacker-gains-access-to-the-otp-secret-by-glitching-the-risc-v-cores-to-enable-debugging
Source: Hacker News
Title: Hacker gains access to the RP2350 OTP secret by glitching the RISC-V cores
Feedly Summary: Comments
AI Summary and Description: Yes
**Short Summary with Insight:**
The text discusses a recent hacking challenge involving the Raspberry Pi RP2350 microcontroller, highlighting a presentation by engineer Aedan Cullen. He successfully executed a voltage injection glitch attack to access hidden features of the RP2350, which includes advanced security mechanisms. This incident demonstrates vulnerabilities in modern hardware designs, particularly in securing microcontrollers against hardware-based attacks, and serves as a crucial example for professionals involved in hardware security.
**Detailed Description:**
The article outlines the hacking challenge set up by Raspberry Pi in collaboration with Hextree, which encourages complex hardware penetration testing against the RP2350 microcontroller. The challenge and Cullen’s approach significantly emphasize the importance of understanding hardware security principles.
Key points include:
– **Challenge Overview:**
– The $20,000 Raspberry Pi and Hextree RP2350 Hacking Challenge concluded recently, with the winner to be announced on January 14, 2024.
– The RP2350 features new security elements such as Secure Boot and Glitch Detectors aimed at industrial markets.
– **Hacking Methodology:**
– Cullen’s presentation at the 38th Chaos Communication Congress (38C3) detailed his approach using voltage injection techniques.
– His objective was to exploit the security measures embedded in the RP2350 to access its normally locked-down features including hidden RISC-V cores.
– **Technical Insights:**
– The RP2350’s security measures include:
– **Secure Boot**
– **TrustZone**
– **Redundancy Coprocessor (RCP)**
– **Glitch Detectors**
– Cullen’s innovative attack was based on a voltage injection strategy targeting specific chip pins, revealing weaknesses in the chip’s security architecture.
– **Experimental Results:**
– Cullen documented his process through a GitHub repo, illustrating the steps taken to isolate and manipulate the RP2350’s hardware components (specifically Pin 53).
– His approach involved disabling security features and experimenting with power glitches to eventually access the secure information within the OTP memory.
– **Conclusion and Learnings:**
– Cullen’s experience highlights the misconception of “permanently disabled” features in hardware and encourages continuous scrutiny of security measures.
– His key takeaways emphasize the importance of communication in security design and the unyielding tendency of hardware vulnerabilities:
– Human factors in communication are critical.
– The notion of permanence in security is often misconstrued.
– Attackers should explore unconventional methods at potential weak points.
The insights from this incident are particularly relevant for hardware security researchers and engineers, serving as a case study for the need for robust security protocols in modern microcontroller designs and demonstrating how seemingly secure elements can be compromised through creative techniques.