PowerSlot UNLEASHED RP2

Overview

The PowerSlot UNLEASHED is a capable platform for power analysis side channel research. It is based on the RP2040 with a very similar component list to the official Raspberry Pi Pico, but modified to fit into the slots of the BitBuster platform. Furthermore, power circuitry is provided to differentially meassure the power draw of the RP2040 VCORE pin.

Pin descriptions

• Analog Channel 0: P+ as positive pin of the differential power measurement
• Analog Channel 1: P- as negative pin of the differential power measurement. This is usually fixed to around 1.1V by the voltage regulator, but you can also measure this in case you need higher accuracy.
• Digital Channels 0: TPM led (TPM)
• Digital Channel 1-17: General purpose I/O, currently only outputs are supported by the BitBuster (INT1 .. INT17)

Firmware

We provide micropython, for which we maintain a custom board build. The changes to stock firmware are as follows:

• All GPIO pins are addressable by name, i.e. using m.Pin('TPM', m.Pin.OUT) etc. The names listed above are supported for the internal channels of the BitBuster, as well as USER for the USER led (this LED is not exposed to the BitBuster)
• The USB UART is mirrored to the internal UART of the BitBuster for multiplexing over TCP / netcat

In case you bricked your device, we provide a flash_nuke.uf2 to erase the entire flash including the builtin fs and the stock firmware (Current micropython version: v1.20).

Rules

• No restrictions if you own your hardware ;)

Known bugs / limitations

This hardware revision does not support USB C Power Delivery. This means that USB-C to USB-C connectors will not provide power to the device, only data. Furthermore experimentation has shown that thunderbolt controllers will disable data too, while non-thunderbolt controllers will usually accept data.

Please either connect via e.g. a USB-C to USB-A cable or provide power and data through the BitBuster.