A research paper by PhD candidate Sergei Skorobogatov at the University ofCambridge has been circulating in the media that highlights abackdoor in Microsemi/Actel ProASIC3 chips allegedly used by the USmilitary. Many outlets have been reporting that China is likelybehind the potential threat as the chips were manufactured therebut as it turns out, those reports aren"t entirely accurate . The findings were first reported in a Reddit post where it"slikely that someone there started the initial finger-pointing atChina, perhaps as part of an agenda-based attack. From there thestory spread like wildfire over the potential security threat thatthe backdoor poses. "This backdoor has a key, which we were able to extract. Ifyou use this key, you can disable the chip or reprogram it at will,even if locked by the user with their own key. This particular chipis prevalent in many systems, from weapons [and] nuclear powerplants to public transport. In other words, this backdoor accesscould be turned into an advanced Stuxnet weapon to attackpotentially millions of systems," Skorobogatov said in theresearch paper. While it"s true that the chips were manufactured in China,they weren"t responsible for the backdoor. Reports are nowclaiming that California-based Actel inserted the backdoor, not asa malicious activity but rather as a built-in debugging interface.Errata Security researcher Robert Graham says that the interface is called JTAG (named after the Joint Test Action Group that was created to testcircuit boards) and is a common debugging practice. He notes thatsomeone would need to have physical access to a chip to"exploit" it. "Whether you call this a security feature to prevent othersfrom hacking the chip through JTAG or a secret backdoor availableonly to the manufacturer, is open to interpretation," Grahamsaid. A question that still remains is how widespread the use ofMicrosemi/Actel ProASIC3 chips actually is. Contrary toSkorobogatov"s research paper, Graham says that this is not atop-secret "military" chip like most are being led tobelieve. He says that none of Actel"s chips are certified bythe government to "hold secrets." Based on these recent findings, it seems that the whole thing couldhave been blown way out of proportion. I am an expert from embroidered-baseballcaps.com, while we provides the quality product, such as China Hip Hop Caps , Military Style Caps Manufacturer, Hip Hop Caps,and more.
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