Research and analysis of embedded software for undeclared capabilities

Abstract

This paper presents the process of extracting, studying, and analyzing embedded software to confirm the presence of an undeclared capabilities. For this purpose, an educational scenario was modeled in which a software backdoor is inserted into an encryption algorithm implemented using Arduino IDE 2.3.2. The backdoor enables covert transmission of a secret key from the electronic device to an attacker over an Ethernet network in response to a predefined code phrase received via the same network interface. The electronic device used is the open-source Arduino UNO platform. To activate an undeclared feature by sending a passphrase to an electronic device, the attacker is expected to use a software backdoor implemented in the Python programming language in the PyCharm 2021.2.2 IDE.