Differential Power Analysis on ARM32 Based Microcontrollers

This explores hardware attacks targeted at ARM microprocessors to extract cryptographic keys used within the encryption of data using side-channel power-based analysis. With the discovery of two high-class vulnerabilities, “Spectre” and “Meltdown”, for Intel’s x86 architecture brings these types of attacks into mainstream media. These attacks expose critical flaws in the design of microprocessor architecture and pose a significant challenge for the mitigation and resolution of attacks due to the nature of the vulnerabilities. The purpose of such attacks is to bring the hardware into an undefined state whereby it either surrenders data or allows the deployment of an attack payload. These types of attacks have the possibility of being extremely damaging, as the combination of exploiting vulnerabilities without direct access to the target poses an even more significant threat to modern microprocessor security