Because of weak encryption used in the IEEE P1735 standard, attackers can restore valuable confidential information in the form of plain text.

The P1735 developed by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) describes a number of methods and techniques for encrypting data on the internal operation of software and hardware used in chips, SoC, integrated circuits and other electronic equipment.

The standard is used to protect intellectual property and allows software and hardware manufacturers to mix their codes to create new products and to protect these products from reverse engineering and from intellectual property theft. In other words, the P1735 is a technical copyright protection tool for lower-level hardware components that allows codes from different manufacturers to work together while remaining encrypted. The standard is used by almost all manufacturers of hardware and software.

A team of researchers from the University of Florida (USA) decided to test the stability of the P1735 for widespread cryptographic attacks.

In the course of the study, the researchers found several problems, and the most serious was the vulnerability, which allows to bypass the protective mechanisms of encryption and gain access to intellectual property in an unencrypted form.

In total, the researchers found in the P1735 seven serious vulnerabilities. The remaining six (besides the above) do not allow access to intellectual property, but still represent a threat. For example, with their help, attackers can inject Trojans into products. In addition, since in most cases one device uses the intellectual property of different vendors, suppliers can deliberately sabotage the performance of competitors' products.