important · Firmware — FPGA
Backside optical probing can recover plaintext partial bitstreams from encrypted AMD 7-Series FPGAs.
Affects
AMD XC7A200T Artix-7 FPGAs, with AMD assessing the same exposure in principle for other 7-Series and Zynq-7000 devices that decrypt bitstreams in programmable logic and reconfigure through ICAP
The demonstrated technique requires possession, unrestricted backside die access and failure-analysis-class optical equipment.
Detail and 1 source
During partial reconfiguration, contactless probing observes plaintext crossing ICAP after the programmable logic decrypts it. AMD provides no software remedy.