Hardware glitch attacks exploit transient faults such as voltage drops to bypass critical security checks in embedded systems. While hardware defenses exist, they often require costly redesigns and are impractical for deployed devices. Carefully engineered software techniques can significantly reduce susceptibility to glitch-induced faults without hardware changes. Using empirical results from controlled experiments on an STM32F3 microcontroller, the session demonstrates how subtle code-level decisions influence attack success. Redundancy, timing variation and data integrity checks can harden authentication logic, while seemingly minor logic changes can unintentionally weaken defenses.

This session, led by Arshid Shyam Kumar, technical expert at Siemens, and Chinmay Krishna R, integrated master's student at IIIT-Bangalore, will cover:

• Why compiler behavior and code structure affect fault injection success;
• The effectiveness of redundancy, masking and volatile variables in critical code paths;
• Common logic patterns that unintentionally amplify glitch attack success.