Anti-reverse anti-copy design method for electronic product
By combining structural anti-tearing design, circuit anti-reverse design, firmware anti-reuse design, hardware activation mechanism design and supporting software tool authorization design, the problem of electronic products being easily dismantled, reverse engineering and imitated is solved, and the low-cost property rights protection and prevention effects are achieved.
Patent Information
- Application Number
- CN202411661371.4
- Authority / Receiving Office
- CN · China
- Patent Type
- Applications(China)
- Current Assignee / Owner
- Filing Date
- 2024-11-20
- Publication Date
- 2025-04-11
AI Technical Summary
After design and manufacture, existing electronic products are easily dismantled, copied and cracked by others through reverse engineering methods, making it difficult to achieve property rights protection.
The combination of structural anti-tamping design, circuit anti-reverse design, firmware anti-reuse design, hardware activation mechanism design and supporting software tool authorization design is adopted to achieve anti-tamping, anti-reverse and anti-imitation of electronic products through physical structure, circuit design, firmware encryption and software authorization.
It realizes efficient anti-tamping, anti-reverse and anti-commentation of electronic products, reduces design costs, and avoids disadvantages in traditional methods, such as increased weight, heating and non-maintenance problems.
Smart Images
Figure CN119808688A_ABST
Abstract
Description
Technical Field
[0001] The invention relates to the field of security design for preventing disassembly, cracking and imitation, and in particular to a simple design method for preventing reverse engineering and copying of electronic products. Background Art
[0002] With the rapid development of science and technology today, electronic products are changing with each passing day, playing the role of "all-rounders" in all aspects of our lives. Conventional electronic products contain basic shells, internal hardware circuits, core chips and functional components, embedded firmware, etc. Some electronic products need to be connected to computers and provide supporting application software to form complete functional features. The design and manufacture of electronic products cost the relevant companies a lot of financial and material resources, and also consumes a lot of energy of engineers. Most of the current electronic products have applied for intellectual property protection, but the product content is still easy to be disassembled, imitated, and copied by others through reverse engineering methods, so that products with similar or completely the same functions can be copied at a lower cost. Therefore, how to prevent the designed products from being cracked and copied and improve the effective property rights protection of entities has become an important research direction in product design and manufacturing.
[0003] At present, in order to prevent self-developed electronic products from being easily cracked and copied, the industry has proposed many methods to prevent others from cracking and copying. For example, embedding a dedicated security chip in the product hardware design, controlling the program flow through cryptographic technology in the application software design, or using special materials to cover and seal the mainboard circuit part so that people cannot observe the actual circuit design. However, these methods still have some disadvantages. For example, the addition of security chips will increase the design cost and there is also a risk of changing the original product characteristics. The use of cryptographic technology will increase the computing overhead and produce a certain delay effect. In addition to increasing the weight of the product itself, covering and sealing may introduce problems such as heating and unrepairability. Summary of the invention
[0004] In view of this, the present invention provides a simple design method for electronic products to prevent reverse engineering and copying, which can achieve the purpose of electronic products' anti-disassembly, anti-reversal and anti-counterfeiting by combining physical structure, circuit design and firmware, and software authorization, and realize the physical property rights protection and standardization of self-developed products in a relatively low-cost, simple and easy way, and solve the problem of lack of prevention in the design and manufacturing of traditional electronic products.
[0005] Based on the above purpose, the technical solution of the present invention is:
[0006] A design method for electronic products to prevent reverse engineering and copying, including structural anti-disassembly design, circuit anti-reverse design, firmware anti-reuse design, hardware activation mechanism design and supporting software tool authorization design;
[0007] The structural anti-disassembly design is as follows: the product is divided into an upper structure and a lower structure, and the joints between the two are sealed with sealant, and a metal anti-disassembly layer is welded and fixed between the upper structure and the lower structure; the specific structural form of the metal anti-disassembly layer is increased;
[0008] Circuit anti-reverse design includes: removing the logo on the chip by grinding, adding false circuits around the core components, adding conversion chips to the pins of the main control chip, setting up multiple small package devices in series on the signal line, and leading out multiple false communication serial ports in the original circuit; the main control board realizes multi-layer board layout through layout technology; the circuit is divided into multiple stacking layers, and the ground layer, power layer or signal layer is added to the internal layer; the board component silk screen and positioning pin logo are removed during board making; the component silk screen and positioning pin logo are cancelled during processing;
[0009] Firmware anti-reuse design, including, upgraded firmware is compressed and encrypted to ensure the security of firmware during transmission and improve the efficiency of data transmission: compression uses QuickLZ fast lossless data compression library to compress firmware data to reduce bandwidth occupancy and transmission time during data transmission; encryption uses AES algorithm, and uses challenge response mechanism to generate dynamic key to improve data security; in this communication method, first the host computer software sends a challenge to the device and requires the device to use the challenge as input to generate a dynamic key; after receiving the challenge, the device generates a response, and after receiving the response, the host computer sends the challenge information and The response is hashed, and the device also calculates the hash result based on the challenge data and the response data. The host computer sends its own hash result to the device, and the device compares the received hash result with the local one. If they are consistent, the hash is used as the dynamic key for this file transfer. The host computer then uses the generated key to encrypt the compressed firmware and transmit it to the device. During the boot process of the device, the upgraded firmware needs to be decrypted and decompressed to restore it to an executable form. AES is a symmetric encryption algorithm that uses the same key for encryption and decryption. The device only needs to use the session key to decrypt and decompress the file.
[0010] Hardware activation mechanism design: Hardware authorization uses AES encryption algorithm combined with the unique identification of the main control chip to generate a unique authorization code. The authorization code is bound to the ID of the main control chip, so that after the firmware is copied to an unauthorized product, the firmware cannot be used, preventing the firmware inside the device from being copied to counterfeit products;
[0011] The supporting software tool authorization design generates a unique license or authorization code through the AES encryption algorithm combined with the CPU ID. The license includes the license type and validity period. When the software is running, the current system time is compared with the CPUID information and the stored license. If the license matches, the software is authorized to run. Otherwise, the software's functions are restricted or the user is required to perform authorization verification. Anti-debugging code is integrated into the code, and the operating system kernel library is used to check whether a debugger exists through the kernel library function. If the presence of a debugger is detected, corresponding measures are taken to prevent crackers from using the debugger for code analysis. At the same time, the supporting software sets up multiple protection mechanisms according to the usage process, and distributes the license key to different functional modules of the software to increase the difficulty of cracking, so that even if a certain function is cracked, other functions are still protected. In addition, a runtime detection mechanism is integrated in the software to detect the software's operating environment and cracking behavior from time to time. This mechanism can monitor the software's operating status in real time, and take corresponding countermeasures immediately once an abnormality is found. These measures are aimed at preventing illegal use and ensuring the safe operation of the software.
[0012] Compared with the prior art, the present invention has the following advantages:
[0013] 1. The method provided by the present invention is relatively general, relatively easy to implement, low in cost, and convenient for popularization and application.
[0014] 2. The structural anti-disassembly design introduced in the present invention adopts a layered structure to weld and encapsulate the internal cavity once to prevent the exposure of the internal module, and adopts a permanent bonding method of the external structure to achieve the sealing of the overall structure and avoid the possibility of conventional disassembly. In terms of structural design, an additional metal anti-disassembly layer is added between the two outer shell cavities, which increases the difficulty of disassembly.
[0015] 3. The invention introduces the authorization technology of hardware ID combined with software encryption. This solution uses an encryption algorithm combined with CPUID to generate a unique authorization code, and adds the authorization code to the software startup and function solution. If the authorization code matches, the software is authorized to run; otherwise, the software function is restricted or the user is required to perform authorization verification.
[0016] 4. The circuit confusion introduced in the present invention adopts a false circuit design in the hardware circuit design, adds a conversion chip to the pin of the main control chip, and adds multiple small package components to the signal line, which increases the difficulty for reverse engineers to restore the circuit. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0017] In order to describe this patent more clearly, several drawings are provided below, which are intended to assist in explaining the background technology, technical principles and / or certain specific implementation plans of this patent.
[0018] Figure 1 This is a diagram of the steps of designing an electronic product to prevent reverse and copying in an embodiment of the present invention.
[0019] Figure 2 This is an example diagram of the structural anti-disassembly design in the embodiment of the present invention;
[0020] Figure 3 This is a diagram of an example of firmware anti-reuse design in an embodiment of the present invention;
[0021] Figure 4 This is a diagram of a hardware activation mechanism design example in an embodiment of the present invention;
[0022] Figure 5 This is a diagram of an example of a design for authorization of a matching software tool in an embodiment of the present invention;
[0023] Figure 6 The figure is a flow chart of dynamic key acquisition in an embodiment of the present invention. DETAILED DESCRIPTION
[0024] The present invention is described below in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and specific embodiments.
[0025] A simple design method for preventing reverse engineering and copying of electronic products, characterized by adopting a design method combining software and hardware, including five steps (methods): structural anti-disassembly design, circuit anti-reverse design, firmware anti-reuse design, hardware activation mechanism design and supporting software tool authorization design.
[0026] The structural anti-disassembly design is to use sealant to encapsulate the joints between the upper structure and the lower structure of the product, which increases the difficulty of disassembly. At the same time, a metal anti-disassembly layer is welded and fixed between the two parts. Violent disassembly will affect the electrical characteristics of the functional components, thereby improving the anti-disassembly protection effect of the internal components from a structural perspective.
[0027] The circuit anti-reverse design adopts logo hiding, circuit camouflage, multi-layer layout process and positioning foot number logo hiding method to reduce the exposure of design details and prevent malicious crackers from obtaining key information of circuit devices to the greatest extent.
[0028] The firmware anti-reuse design includes compression and encryption of the upgraded firmware to ensure the security of the firmware during transmission and improve the efficiency of data transmission. The compression uses the QuickLZ fast lossless data compression library. QuickLZ is a lightweight lossless compression algorithm that is more suitable for MCU. It compresses the firmware data to reduce the bandwidth occupancy and transmission time during data transmission. The encryption uses the AES algorithm and uses a challenge-response mechanism to generate dynamic keys to improve data security. In this communication method, the host computer software first sends a challenge to the device and requires the device to use the challenge as input to generate a dynamic key; after receiving the challenge, the device generates a response (generates a random number and sends it to the host computer). After receiving the response, the host computer hashes the challenge information and the response. The device also calculates the hash result based on the challenge data and the response data. The host computer sends its own hash result to the device. The device compares the received hash result with its own. If they are consistent, the hash is used as the dynamic key for this file transfer. Figure 6 The host computer then uses the generated key to encrypt the compressed firmware and transmit it to the device. During the boot process of the device, the upgraded firmware needs to be decrypted and decompressed to restore it to an executable form. Because AES is a symmetric encryption algorithm, the same key is used for encryption and decryption. The device only needs to use the session key to decrypt and decompress the file.
[0029] Hardware authorization uses the AES encryption algorithm (AES is a symmetric encryption standard established by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in 2001 and widely used to protect the secure transmission and storage of sensitive data) combined with the unique identification of the main control chip to generate a unique authorization code. The authorization code is bound to the ID of the main control chip, so that after the firmware is copied to an unauthorized product, the firmware cannot be used, preventing the firmware inside the device from being copied and used on counterfeit products;
[0030] The supporting software tool authorization design generates a unique license or authorization code through the AES encryption algorithm combined with the CPU ID. The license includes the license type and validity period. When the software is running, the current system time is compared with the CPUID information and the stored license. If the license matches, the software is authorized to run; otherwise, the software function is restricted or the user is required to perform authorization verification. In addition, anti-debugging code is integrated in the code, using the operating system kernel library to check whether the debugger exists through the kernel library function. If the debugger is detected, corresponding measures are taken, such as program suspension and crash, to prevent crackers from using the debugger for code analysis. At the same time, the supporting software sets up multiple protection mechanisms according to the process used, and distributes the license key to different functional modules of the software to increase the difficulty of cracking, so that even if a function is cracked, other functions are still protected. In addition, a runtime detection mechanism is integrated in the software to detect the software's operating environment and cracking behavior from time to time. This mechanism can monitor the software's running status in real time, and take corresponding countermeasures immediately once an abnormal situation is found, such as program termination, error prompts, etc. These measures are designed to prevent illegal use and ensure the safe operation of the software.
[0031] This design method includes five steps: structural anti-disassembly design, circuit anti-reverse design, firmware anti-reuse design, hardware activation mechanism design and supporting software tool authorization design. It is simple to implement and has no additional impact on the original functional performance attributes of the electronic product.
[0032] The design method includes structural anti-disassembly design, circuit anti-reverse design, firmware anti-reuse design, hardware activation mechanism design and supporting software tool authorization design. These methods are independent of each other and can serve as security redundancy to improve the overall property rights protection of the product.
[0033] This design method includes various typical components and design links of electronic products. The continuous upgrading and transformation of other existing prototypes can choose one or more of the five methods, which has certain universality and promotion.
[0034] Further, more detailed explanation:
[0035] like Figure 1 As shown, a design method for electronic products to prevent reverse engineering and copying includes the following steps: S1: structural anti-disassembly design; S2: circuit anti-reverse design (logo hiding, circuit camouflage, multi-layer layout process and positioning foot number logo hiding); S3: firmware anti-reuse design; S4: hardware activation mechanism design; S5: supporting software tool authorization design. The five steps are independent of each other and have mutual security redundancy.
[0036] like Figure 2In the actual case shown, sealant is used to seal the joints of the upper cavity 21 for fixing the GNSS antenna and the lower cavity 22 for fixing the main control circuit board and other functional components 24, so as to increase the difficulty of disassembly and provide additional protection such as waterproof and dustproof. The sealant has heat-resistant properties, and the system will not melt, age, reduce the bonding strength or fall off during long-term operation. At the same time, an additional metal anti-dismantling layer 23 is added by welding between the two parts to further enhance the anti-dismantling protection effect of internal components.
[0037] Circuit anti-reverse design generally adopts four methods to increase protection capabilities:
[0038] 1) Logo hiding: removing the logo or LOGO on the chip by grinding, which increases the difficulty of identifying the chip manufacturer, model and characteristics;
[0039] 2) Circuit camouflage: Add false circuits to the peripheral circuits of core components, and modify and camouflage the conventional circuits recommended by core components without affecting the functions of the main components. By adding conversion chips to the pins of the main control chip, it is impossible to directly measure the specific pins, and thus it is impossible to obtain chip-related information; by connecting small package devices in series at multiple locations on the signal line, it is more difficult for reverse engineers to restore the circuit; by introducing multiple false communication serial ports in the original circuit, it is impossible to determine the real communication interface, in order to increase the confusion;
[0040] 3) Multi-layer layout process: The main control board adopts a multi-layer board layout. By dividing the circuit into multiple layers and adding a ground layer, power layer, and signal layer to the internal layer, the circuit structure and connection relationship are not easy to be observed or analyzed from the outside, thereby increasing the confidentiality of the circuit design;
[0041] 4) Hiding the positioning pin number identification: Remove the board component silk screen and positioning pin identification during board making. Cancel the important information such as component silk screen and positioning pin identification during processing to reduce the exposure of design details, thereby minimizing the risk of malicious crackers obtaining key information of circuit components.
[0042] like Figure 3 As shown in the figure, the firmware anti-reuse design is mainly reflected in the transmission process. The upgraded firmware will first be compressed and encrypted to ensure the security of the firmware during transmission. During the boot process of the device, the upgraded firmware will be decrypted and decompressed to restore it to an executable form. The purpose of this design is to prevent the firmware from being used directly after being leaked. At the same time, the internal firmware read protection function option of the chip is enabled to avoid malicious reading of the internal firmware using means such as JTAG.
[0043] like Figure 4As shown, in this example, the hardware authorization technology uses the AES encryption algorithm combined with the unique identification (ID) of the main control chip to generate a unique authorization code. The authorization code is bound to the ID of the main control chip, so that after the firmware is copied to an unauthorized product, the firmware cannot be used, preventing the firmware inside the device from being copied and used on counterfeit products.
[0044] like Figure 5 As shown, the supporting software authorization technology in this example uses the AES encryption algorithm combined with the CPU ID to generate a unique license or authorization code. The license includes the license type, validity period, etc. When the software is running, the current system time is compared with the CPUID information and the stored license. If the license matches, the software is authorized to run; otherwise, the software's functions are restricted or the user is required to perform authorization verification. At the same time, the supporting software sets up multiple protection mechanisms according to the usage process. The license keys are distributed to different functions of the software and verified at different times. This example mainly adds license verification when the software is started and the function is solved. Even if the cracker maliciously skips the startup verification, multiple verification failure prompts will still be encountered during use, and these processes are random. This approach can greatly increase the cost of cracking the software.
[0045] In short, the intellectual property protection design method used in this example can also be used for the continuous upgrading and transformation of other existing prototypes. While ensuring that the functional completeness and performance indicators do not change, one or more of the following can be selected: structural anti-disassembly design, circuit anti-reverse design, firmware anti-reuse design, hardware activation mechanism design, and supporting software tool authorization design to improve the product's physical intellectual property protection capabilities.
[0046] It should be understood that the above description of the specific implementation methods of this patent is only an exemplary description listed to facilitate ordinary technicians in the field to understand the patent scheme, and does not imply that the scope of protection of this patent is limited to these individual examples. Ordinary technicians in this field can fully understand the technical scheme of this patent and, without any creative work, obtain more specific implementation methods by combining technical features, replacing some technical features, adding more technical features, etc. to the examples listed in this patent. All these specific implementation methods are within the scope of the claims of this patent. Therefore, these new specific implementation methods should also be within the scope of protection of this patent.
[0047] In addition, for the purpose of simplifying the description, this patent may not list some common specific implementation schemes, which are naturally conceivable to ordinary technicians in this field after understanding the technical solution of this patent. Obviously, these solutions should also be included in the scope of protection of this patent.
[0048] For the purpose of simplifying the description, the disclosure of the technical details in the above-mentioned specific implementations may only reach the extent that those skilled in the art can decide on their own, that is, for the technical details not disclosed in the above-mentioned specific implementations, ordinary technicians in this field can completely complete them with the help of textbooks, reference books, papers, patents, audio-visual products and other published documents without any creative work, under the full prompts of the technical solution of this patent, or these details are the content that ordinary technicians in this field can decide on their own according to actual conditions under the common understanding. It can be seen that even if these technical details are not disclosed, it will not affect the sufficiency of the disclosure of the technical solution of this patent.
[0049] In short, based on the interpretation of the scope of protection of the claims by this patent specification, any specific implementation scheme that falls within the scope of the claims of this patent is within the scope of protection of this patent.
Claims
1. A design method for preventing reverse engineering and copying of electronic products, characterized in that: Including structural anti-disassembly design, circuit anti-reverse design, firmware anti-reuse design, hardware activation mechanism design and supporting software tool authorization design; The structural anti-disassembly design is as follows: the product is divided into an upper structure and a lower structure, and the joints between the two are sealed with sealant, and a metal anti-disassembly layer is welded and fixed between the upper structure and the lower structure; the specific structural form of the metal anti-disassembly layer is increased; Circuit anti-reverse design includes: removing the logo on the chip by grinding, adding false circuits around the core components, adding conversion chips to the pins of the main control chip, setting up multiple small package devices in series on the signal line, and leading out multiple false communication serial ports in the original circuit; the main control board realizes multi-layer board layout through layout technology; the circuit is divided into multiple stacking layers, and the ground layer, power layer or signal layer is added to the internal layer; the board component silk screen and positioning pin logo are removed during board making; the component silk screen and positioning pin logo are cancelled during processing; Firmware anti-reuse design, including, upgraded firmware is compressed and encrypted to ensure the security of firmware during transmission and improve the efficiency of data transmission: compression uses QuickLZ fast lossless data compression library to compress firmware data to reduce bandwidth occupancy and transmission time during data transmission; encryption uses AES algorithm, and uses challenge response mechanism to generate dynamic key to improve data security; in this communication method, first the host computer software sends a challenge to the device and requires the device to use the challenge as input to generate a dynamic key; after receiving the challenge, the device generates a response, and after receiving the response, the host computer sends the challenge information and The response is hashed, and the device also calculates the hash result based on the challenge data and the response data. The host computer sends its own hash result to the device, and the device compares the received hash result with the local one. If they are consistent, the hash is used as the dynamic key for this file transfer. The host computer then uses the generated key to encrypt the compressed firmware and transmit it to the device. During the boot process of the device, the upgraded firmware needs to be decrypted and decompressed to restore it to an executable form. AES is a symmetric encryption algorithm that uses the same key for encryption and decryption. The device only needs to use the session key to decrypt and decompress the file. Hardware activation mechanism design: Hardware authorization uses AES encryption algorithm combined with the unique identification of the main control chip to generate a unique authorization code. The authorization code is bound to the ID of the main control chip, so that after the firmware is copied to an unauthorized product, the firmware cannot be used, preventing the firmware inside the device from being copied to counterfeit products; The supporting software tool authorization design generates a unique license or authorization code through the AES encryption algorithm combined with the CPU ID. The license includes the license type and validity period. When the software is running, the current system time is compared with the CPUID information and the stored license. If the license matches, the software is authorized to run. Otherwise, the software's functions are restricted or the user is required to perform authorization verification. Anti-debugging code is integrated into the code, and the operating system kernel library is used to check whether a debugger exists through the kernel library function. If the presence of a debugger is detected, corresponding measures are taken to prevent crackers from using the debugger for code analysis. At the same time, the supporting software sets up multiple protection mechanisms according to the usage process, and distributes the license key to different functional modules of the software to increase the difficulty of cracking, so that even if a certain function is cracked, other functions are still protected. In addition, a runtime detection mechanism is integrated in the software to detect the software's operating environment and cracking behavior from time to time. This mechanism can monitor the software's operating status in real time, and take corresponding countermeasures immediately once an abnormality is found. These measures are aimed at preventing illegal use and ensuring the safe operation of the software.