Understanding Voltage Fault Injection – Glitching Attack

In recent times, there has been quite a buzz around Voltage Fault Injection (VFI) attacks, especially when it comes to embedded systems. Being an hardware hacking enthusiast, I couldn’t resist diving deep into this subject. Voltage Fault Injection, or Crowbar Glitching is a well-known technique among security researchers and hardware hackers, but understanding it in simpler terms has its own charm. So, here’s my attempt at explaining VFI, its role in attacking embedded systems, and the crucial components involved.

What is Voltage Fault Injection?

Simply, Voltage Fault Injection is a type of fault injection attack where an attacker intentionally disturbs the power supply of a system to force it into malfunctioning or misbehaving. It’s like intentionally flicking the light switch rapidly to see if the light bulb behaves strangely.

The idea is to momentarily reduce the voltage (or sometimes increase it) to trick the processor into making mistakes during its execution, possibly bypassing security checks, corrupting operations, or even gaining unauthorized access to sensitive data. In the embedded world, where…