SPRY303F May   2019  – February 2025 AM3351 , AM3352 , AM3354 , AM3356 , AM3357 , AM3358 , AM3358-EP , AM3359 , AM4372 , AM4376 , AM4377 , AM4378 , AM4379 , AM5706 , AM5708 , AM5746 , AM5748 , AM623 , AM625 , AM625-Q1 , AM625SIP , AM62A1-Q1 , AM62A3 , AM62A3-Q1 , AM62A7 , AM62A7-Q1 , AM62L , AM62P , AM62P-Q1 , AM6411 , AM6412 , AM6421 , AM6422 , AM6441 , AM6442 , AM6526 , AM6528 , AM6546 , AM6548 , AM68 , AM68A , AM69 , AM69A , DRA821U , DRA821U-Q1 , DRA829J , DRA829J-Q1 , DRA829V , DRA829V-Q1 , TDA4VM , TDA4VM-Q1

 

  1.   1
  2.   Introduction
  3.   Risk management
  4.   What to protect?
  5.   How much security?
  6.   Architectural considerations
  7.   The security pyramid
  8.   Secure boot
  9.   Cryptographic acceleration
  10.   Device-ID and keys
  11.   Debug security
  12.   Trusted execution environment
  13.   External memory protection
  14.   Network security
  15.   Secure storage
  16.   Initial secure programming
  17.   Secure firmware and software updates
  18.   Software Intellectual Property (IP) protection
  19.   Physical security
  20.   Enclosure protection
  21.   Where to start with embedded security?
  22.   Security enablers for TI application processors
  23.   Conclusion
  24.   References

Physical security

Sophisticated and not-so-sophisticated hacking organizations have been known to remove chips from a system or a silicon die from a chip package to access the embedded assets.

A system under physical attack. Figure 7 A system under physical attack.

Once the device or die have been removed, hackers can bombard them with lasers, power them up beyond their specified power limits or employ other means. Their objective is to observe how the device reacts to the stimulus because this response may betray vulnerabilities that the hackers can then exploit to access the device.

Some application processors have been integrated with hardware and software features to thwart these physical intrusions into both the digital and analog sections of SoCs. Tamper-protection modules integrated into multicore application processors can contain power and temperature monitors, reset functionality, frequency monitors and programmable tamper-protection capabilities.