Matthias Kesenheimer's PicoGlitcher is an innovative, cost-effective device designed to perform voltage glitching attacks on microcontrollers using a Raspberry Pi Pico.
Voltage glitching involves introducing brief, intentional disruptions to a device's power supply to induce faults, potentially bypassing security measures or altering normal operations.
Traditionally, such attacks required expensive equipment, but PicoGlitcher offers a budget-friendly alternative, with an estimated total cost under $33.
Hardware and Design
The PicoGlitcher utilizes the Raspberry Pi Pico, a versatile microcontroller, to execute precise voltage glitches. The hardware setup includes a MOSFET connected to the Pico's output, enabling controlled interruptions to the target device's power supply.
This configuration allows for high-resolution glitching, with a sampling rate below 10 nanoseconds, making it suitable for a variety of fault injection scenarios.
Software Integration
Complementing the hardware is the fault-injection-library, a Python-based toolchain developed by Kesenheimer. This library facilitates the execution of fault injection attacks by providing user-friendly functions and classes.
Users can define parameters such as glitch delay and duration, which are then communicated to the Pico running MicroPython scripts. This integration streamlines the process, making it accessible even to those with limited experience in hardware hacking.
Applications and Demonstrations
Kesenheimer demonstrated the effectiveness of PicoGlitcher during the RHME2 Fault Injection challenge, which involved extracting a hidden flag from a Microchip ATmega328P microcontroller.
By carefully adjusting the glitch parameters, he successfully induced the microcontroller to reveal the protected information, showcasing PicoGlitcher's practical application in real-world scenarios.
Accessibility and Community Impact
One of PicoGlitcher's significant contributions is its accessibility. By reducing the cost and complexity associated with voltage glitching attacks, it opens the field to hobbyists, educators, and researchers. The project's open-source nature encourages community engagement, fostering further development and exploration in hardware security.
Conclusion
PicoGlitcher exemplifies how affordable hardware like the Raspberry Pi Pico can be leveraged for sophisticated tasks such as fault injection.
Its combination of low cost, high precision, and user-friendly software makes it a valuable tool for anyone interested in exploring hardware security and fault injection techniques.
For more detailed information and access to the project's resources, you can visit the following links:
- GitHub Repository: https://github.com/MKesenheimer/fault-injection-library/blob/master/example/pico-glitcher.py
- Blog Post: https://deralchemist.wordpress.com/2021/05/28/raspberry-pico-voltage-glitcher/