Attacking a secure smartcard

[Jerry Leichter]

I've previously mentioned Flylogic as a company that does cool attacks  
on chip-level hardware protection.  In http://www.flylogic.net/blog/?p=18 
, they talk about attacking the ST16601 Smartcard - described by the  
vendor as offering "Very high security features including EEPROM flash  
erase (bulk-erase)".  The chip is covered by a metal mesh that, if cut  
or shorted, blocks operation.  However, Flylogic reports:

"Using our techniques we call, bmagicb (okay, itbs not magic but 
webre  not telling), we opened the bus and probed it keeping the chip 
alive.   We didnbt use any kind of expensive SEM or FIB.  The equipment 
used  was available back in the 90bs to the average hacker!  We didnbt 
even  need a university lab.  Everything we used was commonly available for  
under $100.00 USD.
This is pretty scary when you think that they are certifying these  
devices under all kinds of certifications around the world."

                                                        -- Jerry




---------------------------------------------------------------------
The Cryptography Mailing List
Unsubscribe by sending "unsubscribe cryptography" to majordomo at metzdowd.com

----- End forwarded message -----
-- 
Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://leitl.org">leitl</a> http://leitl.org
______________________________________________________________
ICBM: 48.07100, 11.36820 http://www.ativel.com http://postbiota.org
8B29F6BE: 099D 78BA 2FD3 B014 B08A  7779 75B0 2443 8B29 F6BE