A Novel Approach of a Low-Cost Voltage Fault Injection Method for Resource-Constrained IoT Devices: Design and...

Area of Science:

• Computer Science
• Electrical Engineering
• Cybersecurity

Background:

• The Internet of Things (IoT) processes sensitive data on resource-constrained devices, increasing vulnerability to hardware attacks.
• Fault Injection Attacks (FIAs), especially voltage-based FIAs (V-FIAs), are effective and non-invasive methods to exploit hardware limitations.
• Understanding and mitigating these vulnerabilities is crucial for IoT security.

Purpose of the Study:

• To present a novel fault injection method targeting resource-constrained IoT devices.
• To identify optimal V-FIA parameters for inducing faults in microcontrollers.
• To develop and validate a hardware/software countermeasure against V-FIAs in IoT.

Main Methods:

• A novel voltage-based fault injection technique was developed and applied to an 8-bit AVR microcontroller.
• Optimal attack parameters were determined through analysis of detected failures and their trends.
• A case study simulating a realistic scenario, including a simple authentication method, was performed.

Main Results:

• The study successfully demonstrated the feasibility and effectiveness of the novel V-FIA method.
• Key characteristics of fault generation and propagation in resource-constrained devices were elucidated.
• The efficacy of the V-FIA was validated in a realistic case study targeting an authentication mechanism.

Conclusions:

• Voltage-based fault injection attacks pose a significant threat to IoT security.
• The developed method provides insights into V-FIA vulnerabilities and failure characteristics.
• A practical hardware/software countermeasure is proposed to protect resource-constrained IoT devices.