Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) and connected embedded devices face an increasingly complex physical threat landscape where software protections alone are no longer enough to stop sophisticated hardware attacks.

In this episode, host Zane Pelletier from ETAS is joined by Gabriel Gonzalez-Garcia, Director of Hardware Security at IOActive, for an in-depth exploration of drone security and hardware hacking. Gabriel breaks down how fault injection attacks, including voltage glitching and clock manipulation, allow attackers to bypass secure boot mechanisms, alter instruction execution, and extract sensitive cryptographic keys from embedded chips.

Whether you are an embedded systems engineer, automotive security researcher, or hardware designer, this conversation offers critical insights into securing microcontrollers and automotive ECUs against physical and fault-based exploits.

Read Gabriel’s full whitepaper: https://www.ioactive.com/drone-security-fault-injection-attacks-gabriel-gonzalez/

In this episode: 
00:00 - Introduction: Drone Hacking & Hardware Security Realities 
05:10 - Why UAVs Present Unique Attack Vectors for Embedded Research 
12:45 - Demystifying Fault Injection Attacks: Voltage & Clock Glitching 
19:30 - Bypassing Secure Boot & Hardware-Based Access Controls 
27:15 - Extracting Cryptographic Keys & Firmware from Target Chips 
35:40 - Defensive Engineering: Hardening Microcontrollers Against Physical Exploits 
40:15 - Key Takeaways for Automotive ECUs and Connected Hardware

Thanks for listening!

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