How to differentiate the MCU is secure or not?

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How to differentiate the MCU is secure or not?

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aaronlee
Contributor V

Hi,

Q1. How to differentiate the MCU is secure or not? Have the simple way to do?

Q2. Is it secure or not when i flash MCU done?

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6 Replies

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stanish
NXP Employee
NXP Employee

Hi Aaron,

If you want to avoid flash programming in case the device is not secured I'd recommend you to rather to attach to a running device instead of Download:

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If the device is secured you will see invalid content like this:

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If it's unsecured you should see a valid memory dump.

Hope it  helps.

Stan

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aaronlee
Contributor V

Hi Stan,

Thank you very much.

Best Regards,

Aaron

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lama
NXP TechSupport
NXP TechSupport

Hi,

I hope I understand you well.

When the device is secured then you are not able to neither load the code into it

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nor connect to it and the CW reports it before download.

When the mcu is secured then you can see after download:

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The only BDM command which is accessible is mass errase which is able to clear entire memory and set the security bits to the unsecure status. Unsecuring can be performed by CW or external program.

So easily, if you are able to connect to it by BDM before loading the code or hot plugin then it is not secured.

Have you tried to secure the device and then to connect to it? You will see what happens.

If you want to secure the device then just add following on the top of your code as a global variable:

const unsigned char flash_array[] @ 0xFFFE08 =     // secure the device without backdoor key
   {
    0xFF,   //0xFFF08  
    0xFF,   //0xFFF09  
    0xFF,   //0xFFF0A  RESERVED
    0xFF,   //0xFFF0B  RESERVED
    0xFF,   //0xFFF0C  FPROT
    0xFF,   //0xFFF0D  DFPROT
    0xFF,   //0xFFF0E  FOPT
    0xFC,   //0xFFF0F  FSEC - SECURED without backdoor key
   };

Best regards,

Ladislav

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aaronlee
Contributor V

Dear Ladislav,

I am a new NXP user. I only know how to Build, Debug & Flash in Commander.

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So, I want to learn how to secure and unsecured.  Your reply very detail. Thank you very much. Now, I understand how to do that.

I have another question. How to read unsecured MCU (Ex. S12ZVCA) and save it to PC?

Best Regards,

Aaron

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lama
NXP TechSupport
NXP TechSupport

Let's assume there is running code in the MCU.

The easiest way is to create a new bareboard project

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and do not change anything but:

1) Open a debug configuration

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2) Select attach

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3) You can look into a memory window and press export

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4) Select entire memory and the name of the file

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Thats all.....

best regards,

Ladislav

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aaronlee
Contributor V

Hi Ladislav,

Thank you very much.

Best Regards,

Aaron

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