3 HN users recommended this talk3 months2014–2025score 3.5
Years with an HN recommendation, 2007–2026
Regarded as a favorite practical walkthrough of chip decapping, linked in threads on die shots, hardware backdoors and key extraction.
A DEF CON 21 talk by Adam Laurie and Zac Franken on decapping chips, covering how to remove chip packaging and image the die to read out contents such as ROM.
“One of my favourite talks is Decapping Chips the Hard Way by Adam Laurie and Zac Franken” (HN, 2021)
There was also a great talk at Defcon 21 (last year) walking through a similar process all the way to using a picture of the ROM and image recognition to pull binary data. The first half is about building the lab to do this kind of work so you can skip the first 1/3 - 1/2 if you don't care about that part. [this video]
Walks through decapping chips and reading ROM from images.
I really like this one Defcon talk on chip decapping [1]. It's a pretty nasty process but absolutely one you can do on your driveway (poor man's fume hood, don't tell the EPA) at home. You can then just use a standard front lit microscope to take die shots. [1] [this video]
This[0] is a backdoor that was discovered _only_ through reading patents on the chip. It gave the highest possible privilege(ring -4) to the user by simply running an undocumented cpu register. It would be incredibly easy to hide something like this within one of the 100 of thousands of computers that go to the big 4 or even the pentagon. I'd imagine people at the pentagon select randomly from a number of computers coming in and do some chip analysis like this[1] but I can only speculate and they probably can't stop all the hardware backdoors this way. Anybody that would be caught disclosing highly classified information would probably be found and promptly hanged(or get in some sort of freak car accident). They probably have some serious counterintelligence to catch the leaks. Once again I am only speculating. [0]: [link] [1]: [this video]
Example of chip analysis for finding hardware backdoors.
I don't do chip decapping but from the looks of it[0], it's incredibly hard and time consuming. They would have to do it to every server. It would be easier to suggest that there's no actual guarantees of hardware security these companies can make unless I am missing something. I am not a computer engineer nor do I have I worked in secops at any of these companies. [0]: [this video]
I feel your comment and realize the cynic in me but i havw to tell you this. and its not a conspiracy. this is litterally why smart TV, internet, mobiles etc. were made smart. they hadn't enough spying capabilities in their dumb form. more than 145 countries spend in excess of 10 million (most MUCH more) on offensive digital spying operations. These devices are their main vehicles. If you really worry about this and dont want it, there are really only few alternatives and they are more and more risky to use. (for tv really there are none). and keeping it 'offline' or 'unplugged' also does not work. if you dont beleive it. people found things like RF chips that hack wifi in proximity, packed into silicone and included in random devices like kettles.. irons... so u can be sure more advanced devices will also have them. people doing things like chip decapping have found a lot of this stuff, mostly in the context of doing assurance work in light of governemnts wanting to buy mundane things like coffee machines and other items that need to be present at high security locations. this video shows a bit how ppl find it and hence also lists some realworld examples... [this video] dont be naive and think this will ever change. its all done in defense of other nations doing it .... and they wont all suddenly agree to stop together and trust eachother in that stopping... its impossible.sadly.
Shows how hidden spying hardware is found, with examples.
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