Connecting UFO Board with COTS device

Embedded Security ChipWhisperer Hardware
1

Hi everyone,

After having completed the different sca tutorials, I wanted to try myself on COTS devices (non-custom made target boards) with the goal of breaking AES implementations, like in the labs.

I saw that it is possible to do so by using a probe (a differential probe or an H-Probe for instance), but before going for that solution I wanted to know if it is possible to connect a random COTS device to the UFO board? (maybe by dissemble the device and with the usage of extra wires).

As I am really not acquainted with the “hardware world” (even if I made a lot of progress thanks to the CW :grinning:), I don’t really know what it takes to do that.

Thanks a lot

2

Hi,

Yup, it’s definitely possible to attack off the shelf stuff - we even have a generic prototyping board: https://rtfm.newae.com/Targets/UFO%20Targets/CW308T-GENERIC/.

Of course, you might find it easier to connect your device up directly to the capture board. You can find
an example of that at: https://wiki.newae.com/Tutorial_A9_Bypassing_LPC1114_Read_Protect#Hardware_Setup.

A quick summary of things you need to do:

  1. Connect the ground of the target board to the ground of the ChipWhisperer (CW308 or capture board).
  2. Get a trigger out pin for triggering the ChipWhisperer scope
  3. Insert a shunt resistor between the board power supply and the Vcc pins (can omit if using an H-Field probe)
  4. Remove decoupling capacitors on the low side of the shunt (Can omit if using an H-Field probe)
  5. If you need them, connect communication pins to the ChipWhisperer.

Alex

3

That’s exactly what I was looking for :grinning:.

Thanks Alex