Break IC, Recover MCU, Microcontroller Reverse Engineering

Posts Tagged ‘cpld mcu source code break’

IC Code Break is a process to crack microcontroller protective system and readout firmware from MCU embedded memory;

More often an intermediate approach is used when the IC is built from separate blocks but each block uses glue logic design as in, for example, the Cypress CY7C63001A microcontroller.

In this case an MCU breaker could more easily trace the bus and control lines between the blocks, and launch invasive or semi-invasive MCU attacking on the chip. Glue logic design does not eliminate the possibility of non-invasive cracking, but as the performance increases, faster and more expensive equipment is required.

Semi-invasive ic breaking will also face problems due to disguised design blocks. Of course the breaker could automate the process by running an exhaustive search and trying to break all possible areas. Definitely this approach would take a long time and may in the end not be successful. On the other hand, an mcu heximal extraction could be applied directly to the memory itself or its control circuit, because they cannot be implemented in the same glue logic structure and stay visibly separate.