Patent · US Expired

Method and arrangement for the verification of NV fuses as well as a corresponding computer program product and a corresponding computer-readable storage medium

US7178039B2 · kind B2 · utility

3Cited by
9References
14Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventor

Key dates

Filing dateDec 16, 2002
Grant dateFeb 13, 2007
Priority date
Expiry dateMar 16, 2025

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG11C16/22
  • WIPO fieldComputer technology
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

The invention relates to a method and an arrangement for the verification of NV fuses as well as to a corresponding computer program product and to a corresponding computer-readable storage medium which can be used notably for the detection of attacks on the smart card security which modify EEPROM contents and hence also the contents of EEPROM fuses.During the reset phase the fuses are read from the EEPROM. The fuse values successively read out are then automatically verified. One possible implementation is, for example, to load the fuse values read out into a signature register, followed by comparison with a reference value. Appropriate security measures can be activated should the automatic verification indicate an error, for example, due to unauthorized modification of a fuse or attack on the boot operation.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.