Break IC, Recover MCU, Microcontroller Reverse Engineering

A determined IC attacker could try an easy way to check whether this chip was actually an ASIC. The easy way is to note which pins are connected to power supply, ground, clock, reset, serial, and other interfaces, and to compare all this information with the database of suspect microcontrollers or other mcus. This works very reliably, as each microcontroller family has its own characteristic pinout. Once similarities are found the suspected microcontroller could be verified by placing it into a programming device or universal programmer and trying to read it.

Attack Custom IC which has specific memory structure and system different from standard Microchip, ATMEL microcontroller to extract code from MCU memory, reverse engineering custom IC can help to figure out the internal structure of custom IC;

Attack Custom IC which has specific memory structure and system different from standard Microchip, ATMEL microcontroller to extract code from MCU memory, reverse engineering custom IC can help to figure out the internal structure of custom IC

Semiconductor manufacturers offer valuable customers an easy way to increase the protection of their products: chips with custom marking on the packages instead of standard chip names. That gives the impression that the final product was designed using ASICs or full custom ICs. ‘Everyone knows’ that ASICs offer very good protection against different sorts of attacks and only well equipped and highly skilled attackers could succeed with breaking them. This may stop many potential attackers fiddling with the product.

We can decrypt secured MCU ATMEGA128P code, please view the secured MCU ATMEGA128P features for your reference:
The following charts show typical behavior. These data are characterized but not tested. All current consumption measurements are performed with all I/O pins configured as inputs and with internal pull-ups enabled.

The current consumption is a function of several factors such as: Operating voltage, operating frequency, loading of I/O pins, switching rate of I/O pins, code executed and ambient temperature. The dominating factors are operating voltage and frequency if Decrypt Secured MCU ATMEGA128P Code.

The current drawn from capacitive loaded pins may be estimated (for one pin) as CL·VCC·f where CL = load capacitance, VCC = operating voltage and f = average switching frequency of I/O pin.

The difference between current consumption in Power-down mode with Watchdog Timer enabled and Power-down mode with Watchdog Timer disabled represents the differential current drawn by the Watchdog Timer after Decrypt Secured MCU ATMEGA128P Code.
The ATMEGA128P is a low-power, high-performance CMOS 8-bit microcomputer with 12K bytes of Downloadable Flash codemable and erasable read only memory.

The device is manufactured using Atmel’s high density nonvolatile memory technology and is compatible with the industry standard 80C51 instruction set and pinout.

The onsecured MCU Downloadable Flash allows the code memory to be recodemed in-system through an SPI serial interface or by a conventional nonvolatile memory codemer before Decrypt Secured MCU ATMEGA128P Code.

Smartcard attack will not be so expensive, because pirate devices are normally based on standard microcontrollers which have much lower security protection than pay-TV smartcards. Very likely the device will be cracked in a few weeks, and the secondary attackers will flood the market with their clones. Fairly soon, the information on how to build pirate devices becomes available on the Internet and anyone can build pirate devices at almost no cost. So the pay-TV service provider loses millions of dollars; sometimes the original attacker is sued or prosecuted. But because the lost profit was distributed among all the pirates and dishonest subscribers, the service provider hardly gets any money back. The only effect of such actions is to threaten the hacker community with punishment. In addition the service provider will have to spend a fortune on redesigning his access control system, choosing and developing software for the new smartcard, and distributing cards to the subscribers

Another example is when the smartcard attacker invests a huge amount of money to reverse engineer a pay-TV access card. Then he disassembles the internal code from the card, learning everything that happens during authorisation and operation. Very likely he would be able to find vulnerabilities which give unlimited access to the subscription channels, for example, by applying a power glitch at just the right moment to cause a malfunction of the CPU. Once he succeeded he could either offer the subscription service at a very competitive price, or sell equipment for counterfeiting the card to malicious people. Obviously such an attacker needs to invest some capital to do this. But once he launches a pirate device on the market, it will be attacked by others.

Anyone who has ever tried to add a modem- or network-card to a PC knows that such an undertaking may produce unwanted results and can take more time than expected. To achieve cost savings from high volume production, the add-in board is designed to be logically compatible to a large variety of motherboards from various vendors. This flexibility makes it necessary to configure the board for its operating environment before it is ready to function. To perform the configuration one needs two pieces of information: sufficient knowledge of the system that the board is expected to reside in and knowledge of the board itself. Once the suitable settings are determined one needs to set jumpers or flip switches on the board. This completes the tricky part of the hardware installation.

We can dump microcontroller ATMEGA128V locked code, please view the microcontroller ATMEGA128V features for your reference:
The ATMEGA128V provides the following standard features: 12K bytes of Downloadable locked code, 256 bytes of RAM, 32 I/O lines, programmable watchdog timer, two Data Pointers, three 16-bit timer/counters, a six-vector two-level interrupt architecture, a full duplex serial port, on-chip oscillator, and clock circuitry.
In addition, the ATMEGA128V is designed with static logic for operation down to zero frequency and supports two software selectable power saving modes. The Idle Mode stops the CPU while allowing the RAM, timer/counters, serial port, and interrupt system to continue functioning if Dump Microcontroller ATMEGA128V Locked Code.
The Power Down Mode saves the RAM contents but freezes the oscillator, disabling all other chip functions until the next interrupt or hardware reset.
The Downloadable locked code can be changed a single byte at a time and is accessible through the SPI serial interface. Holding RESET active forces the SPI bus into a serial programming interface and allows the program memory to be written to or read from unless Lock Bit 2 has been activated after Dump Microcontroller ATMEGA128V Locked Code.

Port 0 is an 8-bit open drain bidirectional I/O port. As an output port, each pin can sink eight TTL inputs. When 1s are written to port 0 pins, the pins can be used as high impedance inputs. Port 0 can also be configured to be the multiplexed low order address/data bus during accesses to external program and data memory. In this mode, P0 has internal pullups.

Port 0 also receives the code bytes during locked code programming and outputs the code bytes during program verification. External pullups are required during program verification before Dump Microcontroller ATMEGA128V Locked Code.

Port 1 is an 8-bit bidirectional I/O port with internal pullups. The Port 1 output buffers can sink/source four TTL inputs. When 1s are written to Port 1 pins, they are pulled high by the internal pullups and can be used as inputs. As inputs, Port 1 pins that are externally being pulled low will source current (IIL) because of the internal pullups.

Some Port 1 pins provide additional functions. P1.0 and P1.1 can be configured to be the timer/counter 2 external count input (P1.0/T2) and the timer/counter 2 trigger input (P1.1/T2EX), respectively after REVERSE ENGINEERING MICROCONTROLLER.

We can recover locked chip ATMEGA128PV binary, please view the locked chip ATMEGA128PV features for your reference:
Port 1 also receives the low-order address bytes during Flash programming and verification.
Port 2
Port 2 is an 8-bit bidirectional I/O port with internal pullups. The Port 2 output buffers can sink/source four TTL inputs. When 1s are written to Port 2 pins, they are pulled high by the internal pullups and can be used as inputs when Recover Locked Chip ATMEGA128PV Binary.
As inputs, Port 2 pins that are externally being pulled low will source current (IIL) because of the internal pullups. Port 2 emits the high-order address byte during fetches from external program memory and during accesses to external data memory that use 16-bit addresses (MOVX @ DPTR).
In this application, Port 2 uses strong internal pullups when emitting 1s. During accesses to external data memory that use 8-bit addresses (MOVX @ RI), Port 2 emits the contents of the P2 Special Function Register.
Port 2 also receives the high-order address bits and some control signals during Flash programming and verification.
Port 3
Port 3 is an 8 bit bidirectional I/O port with internal pullups. The Port 3 output buffers can sink/source four TTL inputs. When 1s are written to Port 3 pins, they are pulled high by the internal pullups and can be used as inputs after Recover Locked Chip ATMEGA128PV Binary.
As inputs, Port 3 pins that are externally being pulled low will source current (IIL) because of the pullups. Port 3 also serves the functions of various special features of the AT89S53, as shown in the following table. Port 3 also receives some control signals for Flash programming and verification.
Reset input. A high on this pin for two machine cycles while the oscillator is running resets the device.
ALE/PROG
Address Latch Enable is an output pulse for latching the low byte of the address during accesses to external memory. This pin is also the program pulse input (PROG) during Flash programming.
In normal operation, ALE is emitted at a constant rate of 1/6 the oscillator frequency and may be used for external timing or clocking purposes. Note, however, that one ALE pulse is skipped during each access to external data memory before RECOVER MCU.

We can decrypt locked MCU ATMEGA128V embedded firmware, please view the locked MCU ATMEGA128V features for your reference:
If desired, ALE operation can be disabled by setting bit 0 of SFR location 8EH. With the bit set, ALE is active only during a MOVX or MOVC instruction. Otherwise, the pin is weakly pulled high. Setting the ALE-disable bit has no effect if the microcontroller is in external execution mode.
Program Store Enable is the read strobe to external program memory. When the AT89S53 is executing embedded firmware from external program memory, PSEN is activated twice each machine cycle, except that two PSEN activations are skipped during each access to external data memory before Decrypt Locked MCU ATMEGA128V Embedded Firmware.
External Access Enable. EA must be strapped to GND in order to enable the device to fetch embedded firmware from external program memory locations starting at 0000H up to FFFFH. Note, however, that if lock bit 1 is programmed, EA will be internally latched on reset.
EA should be strapped to VCC for internal program executions. This pin also receives the 12-volt programming enable voltage (VPP) during Flash programming when 12-volt programming is selected.
A map of the on-chip memory area called the Special Function Register (SFR) space is shown in Table 1. Note that not all of the addresses are occupied, and unoccupied addresses may not be implemented on the chip when Decrypt Locked MCU ATMEGA128V Embedded Firmware.
Read accesses to these addresses will in general return random data, and write accesses will have an indeterminate effect. User software should not write 1s to these unlisted locations, since they may be used in future products to invoke new features. In that case, the reset or inactive values of the new bits will always be 0.
Timer 2 Registers Control and status bits are contained in registers T2CON (shown in Table 2) and T2MOD (shown in Table 9) for Timer 2. The register pair (RCAP2H, RCAP2L) are the Capture/Reload registers for Timer 2 in 16 bit capture mode or 16-bit auto-reload mode before Decrypt Locked MCU ATMEGA128V Embedded Firmware.
Watchdog Control Register The WCON register contains control bits for the Watchdog Timer (shown in Table 3). The DPS bit selects one of two DPTR registers available after BREAK IC.

We can decrypt Microprocessor ATMEGA169PA code, please view the Microprocessor ATMEGA169PA features for your reference:
SPI Registers Control and status bits for the Serial Peripheral Interface are contained in registers SPCR (shown in Table 4) and SPSR (shown in Table 5). The SPI data bits are contained in the SPDR register.
Writing the SPI data register during serial data transfer sets the Write Collision bit, WCOL, in the SPSR register. The SPDR is double buffered for writing and the values in SPDR are not changed by Reset if decrypt Microprocessor code.
Interrupt Registers The global interrupt enable bit and the individual interrupt enable bits are in the IE register. In addition, the individual interrupt enable bit for the SPI is in the SPCR register. Two priorities can be set for each of the six interrupt sources in the IP register before Decrypt Microprocessor ATMEGA169PA Code.
Dual Data Pointer Registers To facilitate accessing external data memory, two banks of 16 bit Data Pointer Registers are provided: DP0 at SFR address locations 82H-83H and DP1 at 84H-85H. Bit DPS = 0 in SFR WCON selects DP0 and DPS = 1 selects DP1.
The user should always initalize the DPS bit to the appropriate value before accessing the respective Data Pointer register.
Power Off Flag The Power Off Flag (POF) is located at bit_4 (PCON.4) in the PCON SFR. POF is set to “1” during power up. It can be set and reset under software control and is not affected by RESET when Decrypt Microprocessor ATMEGA169PA Code.
The ATMEGA169PA implements 256 bytes of RAM. The upper 128 bytes of RAM occupy a parallel space to the Special Function Registers. That means the upper 128 bytes have the same addresses as the SFR space but are physically separate from SFR space.
When an instruction accesses an internal location above address 7FH, the address mode used in the instruction specifies whether the CPU accesses the upper 128 bytes of RAM or the SFR space. Instructions that use direct addressing access SFR space.
For example, the following direct addressing instruction accesses the SFR at location 0A0H (which is P2) after Decrypt Microprocessor ATMEGA169PA Code.