English (United Kingdom)

https://curated-unify.zendy.io/wp-json/zendy-region/v1/featured_content/oa?rat=en

https://curated-unify.zendy.io/wp-json/zendy-region/v1/highlighted_journal/

Global: Zendy Plus annual

Presents the access of premium content as premium feature

Premium Content

Presents the keyphrase highlighting as premium feature

Keyphrase Highlighting

Presents the summarisation as premium feature

Summarisation

Insights

Presents the pdf analysis as premium feature

PDF Analysis

Presents the zaia usage as premium feature

ZAIA

Global: Zendy Plus monthly

Global: Zendy Tools annual

Global: Zendy Tools monthly

Global: Zendy Free Plan

With the increasing complexity of embedded systems, the firmware has become avaluable asset. At the same time, pressure for cost reductions in hardware isimminent. These two aspects are united at the heart of the system, i.e., themicrocontroller. It runs and protects its firmware, but simultaneously has toprevail against cheaper alternatives. For the very popular STM32F1microcontroller series, this has caused the emergence of many competitors inthe last few years who offer drop-in replacements or even sell counterfeitdevices at a fraction of the original price. Thus, the question emerges whetherthe replacements are silicon-level clones and, if not, whether they providebetter, equal, or less security. In this paper, we analyze a total of sixdevices by four manufacturers, including the original device, in depth. Via alow-level analysis, we identify all of them as being individually developeddevices. We further put the focus on debug and hardware security, discoveringseveral novel vulnerabilities in all devices, causing the exposure of theentire firmware. All of the presented vulnerabilities, including invasive ones,are on a Do it Yourself (DiY) level without the demand for a sophisticated lab-- thereby underlining the urgency for hardware fixes. To facilitate furtherresearch, reproduction, and testing of other devices, we provide acomprehensive description of all vulnerabilities in this paper and code forproofs-of-concepts online.

One Exploit to Rule them All? On the Security of Drop-in Replacement and Counterfeit Microcontrollers