Posted on May 17, 2011 at 14:12Does it matter from whom ?
Clearly. And it also matters how much your code would cost to write from scratch vs pull off the device, and the motivation of the attackers. If your code you be written by a bunch of guys in India or China in a few months perhaps no one would bother, but if the code was worth $100K-$1M in development time to duplicate, some might be willing spend $10K in equipment and chemicals, and effort to recover what you have created.
Is your code worth stealing?
I have experience with IC design, QA and validation. I've worked with people that fabricate ICs and those that tear them down. When you see the world from that perspective you appreciate that a security fuse only raises the bar somewhat.
So you say it is impossible ? No, what I've said is that you can make it more difficult, but without a clear understanding of the skills and tools your adversaries have you are clearly at a major disadvantage. I think protecting your IP will be very difficult, it depends on what your threshold conditions are, and whether having the device destroy itself is a viable protection option.
What is ROP ? Read Out Protection - A feature in the STM32 to make reading out the FLASH more difficult.
