4.7 Case Study of the Development …
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borne in mind that a software virus can install a hardware Trojan even on a BASYS
board, usually always connected via USB to this infected computer.
Attack to Physically Destroy a Microcircuit
Another concept of Trojan attacks developed by the team [156] was to physically
destroy the device when the Trojan was triggered. The basis for such an experiment
was the data accumulated by experts, confirming the possibility of organizing such
attacks. For example, back in September 2007, as you know, Israeli aircraft made
an armed raid on the Syrian nuclear reactor, which, according to Israeli intelligence,
carried out work on the creation of nuclear weapons. Just a few minutes before
approaching the target, all the air defense systems of the nuclear facility protection belt, including radar, instantly went out of order. The facility was completely
incapacitated with a missile strike from the aircraft; Israeli aviation met virtually
no resistance, excluding feeble attempts of protection with automatic bombardment
of high-speed bombers-fighters. Military experts (mostly Russian), who participated
in the analysis of the causes of radar failures, concluded: The cause of the catastrophic radar failure was the externally command-driven failure (self-destruction) of
a French microcontroller of the radar control system. Figure 4.44 shows photos of
the appearance of this microprocessor before (a) and after (b) the attack.
Therefore, the team even made experimental attempts to force the device to destroy
itself, but none of them was successful. The means used by the team [224] for such an
attack varied significantly and included, among other things, generating enough heat
to heat up to cause damage. At the same time, they created a special HDL code or
individual presets of synthesis procedures for Xilinx ISE in such a way that it created
a self-destructive stream of binary data. Note that significant progress has been made
in generating the amount of heat produced. It is conceivable that this goal was not
specifically solved by the team, but in conjunction with an attack to steal the secret
key, so the heat generated in this experiment was not enough to create significant
b)
а)
Fig. 4.44 The appearance of the microprocessor of the radar control system before (a) and after
(b) attack
371
borne in mind that a software virus can install a hardware Trojan even on a BASYS
board, usually always connected via USB to this infected computer.
Attack to Physically Destroy a Microcircuit
Another concept of Trojan attacks developed by the team [156] was to physically
destroy the device when the Trojan was triggered. The basis for such an experiment
was the data accumulated by experts, confirming the possibility of organizing such
attacks. For example, back in September 2007, as you know, Israeli aircraft made
an armed raid on the Syrian nuclear reactor, which, according to Israeli intelligence,
carried out work on the creation of nuclear weapons. Just a few minutes before
approaching the target, all the air defense systems of the nuclear facility protection belt, including radar, instantly went out of order. The facility was completely
incapacitated with a missile strike from the aircraft; Israeli aviation met virtually
no resistance, excluding feeble attempts of protection with automatic bombardment
of high-speed bombers-fighters. Military experts (mostly Russian), who participated
in the analysis of the causes of radar failures, concluded: The cause of the catastrophic radar failure was the externally command-driven failure (self-destruction) of
a French microcontroller of the radar control system. Figure 4.44 shows photos of
the appearance of this microprocessor before (a) and after (b) the attack.
Therefore, the team even made experimental attempts to force the device to destroy
itself, but none of them was successful. The means used by the team [224] for such an
attack varied significantly and included, among other things, generating enough heat
to heat up to cause damage. At the same time, they created a special HDL code or
individual presets of synthesis procedures for Xilinx ISE in such a way that it created
a self-destructive stream of binary data. Note that significant progress has been made
in generating the amount of heat produced. It is conceivable that this goal was not
specifically solved by the team, but in conjunction with an attack to steal the secret
key, so the heat generated in this experiment was not enough to create significant
b)
а)
Fig. 4.44 The appearance of the microprocessor of the radar control system before (a) and after
(b) attack