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MSP430 program protection solution

Onur YILDIRIM
Intellectual 620 points

Hello,

I designed a software and now I'm using MSP430 development usb product. MSP430 communicates with the software. But it is very very important that no one can copy the program inside the MSP430.

I heard years ago there was no security in TI's microcontrollers and everybody can copy others application. I knew that this is blocked right now.

I want to ask "what is TI's guarantee?, solution? etc." and I read posts about BSL i couldnt find where to start.

Could you please explain a little bit more what i need to do?

Thank you,

Onur

  • 0
    TI__Expert 3315 points

    Hi,

        Which device are you using?

        For the BSL in particular, you can read: SLAU319 for all needed information.

  • 0 in reply to Lane Westlund
    Intellectual 620 points

    Hello,

    Now, I have EZ430-RF2500 kit. I want to make some tests on that kit. And then, I want to buy USB development kit from TI E-store..

     

  • 0
    Guru 227245 points

    If you blow the JTAG fuse, tehre's no more access to the MSP possible through JTAG. hence nobody can read the code using JTAG anymore. This also implies that you cannot reprogram the device using JTAg once the fuse was blown.

    There's still access to the device using the boot strap loader. However, to make the BSL sending memory content to the connected host, the host needs to send a password. This password is directly taken from the interrupt vector table, so it changes depending on the firmware code inside the MSP. If teh password is sent wrong once, the BSL will mass-erase the MSP, leaving the device blank without code. Then, of course, the password is known (all F) and the MSP can be reprogrammed. But unless you know the password and therefore at least the interrutp vector table of the included program, you cannot read the memory (including stored configuration values or such). And if you try guessing it and fail, the device is memory-wiped. So on average, some millions of programmed devices were necessary to find the correct password.

    There may be a backdoor on the new low-voltage devices, but it still wouldn't be easy or fast even if this worked as I think it could.

    Anyway, security by obscurity (including passwords or hiding the code) is a really obsolete concept right now. And if there's a will, there's a way. As long as the device is doing its job, there will be ways to observe how it is doing it. Looking with an infrared camera to the die while it runs to detect the instructions executed during program flow, trying to read the content of the flash with a raster force microscope, whatever. It's just a question of how important it is to get the information.

     

    P.s.: please cut down the taglist of your post. It's not only larger than the actual question, it contains very many tags which don't have to do anything with the topic or are unnecessarily specific.
    A few tags like 'BSL' or 'code protection' would have done better.

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