Be Write Back - An In-Depth Study of Fault Injection Effects on FRAM Technology

Explore the security vulnerabilities of Ferroelectric Random Access Memory (FRAM) technology through this 19-minute conference presentation from WOOT '25. Examine the first comprehensive security-focused analysis of fault injection effects on FRAM, moving beyond traditional safety concerns in space applications to investigate potential attack vectors. Learn how researchers identified vulnerable signals in FRAM control circuits and conducted practical attacks on external memory devices from multiple manufacturers. Discover how the FRAM-specific write-back operation can be exploited to reactivate debug interfaces on microcontrollers like the MSP430FR, with demonstrations showing attacks executable in under one minute using modest equipment. Understand the theoretical foundations of FRAM weak points, analyze detailed attack methodologies, and review proposed security mitigations that manufacturers can implement to enhance protection against these newly identified vulnerabilities.