On Analyzing Program Behavior Under Fault Injection Attacks

Fault attacks pose a serious threat to cryptographic algorithm implementations. It is a non-trivial task to design a code that minimizes the risk of exploiting the incorrect output that was produced by inducing faults in the algorithm execution process. In this paper we propose a design of an instruction set simulator capable of analyzing the code behavior under fault attack conditions. Our simulator is easy to use and provides a valuable insights for the designers that could help to harden the code they implement

Assembly Level Clock Glitch Insertion Into An XMega MCU

This thesis proposes clock-glitch fault injection technique to inject glitches into the clock signal running in a microcontroller unit and studying its effects on different assembly level instructions. It focusses mainly on the effect of clock glitches over the execution, sub-execution and pre-execution cycles of the test instructions and also finds the delay between the actual position of glitch insertion and the trigger being set for the glitch insertion. The instructions used in this work are provided by Atmel which classifies them according to their type of operation. These instructions are here further grouped depending on the number of clock cycles they require for their execution. Each group of instructions are tested for their behavior towards clock glitches being injected at different places in and surrounding their execution cycle. This thesis utilizes the ChipWhisperer-Lite board (CW1173) for performing the whole experiment by controlling the target device, providing clock as well as clock glitches with appropriate properties at appropriate position to the target device. The Atmel AVR XMEGA 128D4U is used as the target device (CW303) that uses an external clock of frequency 7.37MHz generated by the main board. The Capture software, provided by the ChipWhisperer, is used for establishing the hardware connection between the main board and the target board. The clock glitches are designed and triggered through the Capture software

Assembly Level Clock Glitch Insertion Into An XMega MCU

This thesis proposes clock-glitch fault injection technique to inject glitches into the clock signal running in a microcontroller unit and studying its effects on different assembly level instructions. It focusses mainly on the effect of clock glitches over the execution, sub-execution and pre-execution cycles of the test instructions and also finds the delay between the actual position of glitch insertion and the trigger being set for the glitch insertion. The instructions used in this work are provided by Atmel which classifies them according to their type of operation. These instructions are here further grouped depending on the number of clock cycles they require for their execution. Each group of instructions are tested for their behavior towards clock glitches being injected at different places in and surrounding their execution cycle. This thesis utilizes the ChipWhisperer-Lite board (CW1173) for performing the whole experiment by controlling the target device, providing clock as well as clock glitches with appropriate properties at appropriate position to the target device. The Atmel AVR XMEGA 128D4U is used as the target device (CW303) that uses an external clock of frequency 7.37MHz generated by the main board. The Capture software, provided by the ChipWhisperer, is used for establishing the hardware connection between the main board and the target board. The clock glitches are designed and triggered through the Capture software