Glitching is a method that allows bypassing security checks in firmware running on chips. Dropping voltage or inducing an electromagnetic field for a very short moment causes the chip to behave differently. For example, the chip might skip a check in the secure bootloader, allowing an attacker to run arbitrary firmware. This is of special interest for wireless security research. Instead of re-implementing protocols on software-defined radios, we can modify existing firmware to test very specific security assumptions in an otherwise unmodified environment.

We have a lab with various equipment suitable for glitching, such as oscilloscopes, the ChipWhisperer and the ChipShouter. Thus, the thesis will require you to do at least some parts of the work onsite. However, we also have some ChipWhisperer Nanos etc., in case you want to do parts of the work from home.

Required background knowledge is either electrical engineering or IT security. Can be done as both, either B.Sc. thesis or M.Sc. thesis, depending on the amount/complexity of chips.