What Is Glitching in Cybersecurity

If we asked you to name a few cyberattack strategies, your mind might jump to phishing emails or ransomware. But have you heard of glitching?

Glitching, also known as fault injection, is a sophisticated hardware-based attack that manipulates a device’s operating conditions, wreaking havoc on secure systems. Curious? Let’s deep-dive into what glitching attacks are, how they work, and why they matter.

What Is Glitching?

Simply put, glitching is about disrupting a device’s hardware in carefully targeted ways. By doing so, attackers force the device to behave unexpectedly, potentially bypassing its security measures. The goal? Gaining unauthorized access, extracting sensitive data, or altering the device’s behavior.

Here's the technical stuff:

Glitching methods: This involves intentional manipulation of voltage, clock signals, or even environmental conditions like temperature.
Endgame: Attackers aim to bypass controls like password checks, extract encryption keys, or tamper with firmware.
Difference compared to software exploits: Software exploits target vulnerabilities in code, while glitching manipulates the physical operations of a device.

Think of glitching as poking just the right spot on a device at just the right time, causing it to malfunction in a way that benefits the attacker.

Types of Glitching Attacks

Not all glitches are created equal! Here are four common glitching methods hackers use:

1. Voltage Glitching

The attacker manipulates the power supply to the device, creating short disruptions in voltage. This can lead to data corruption or force the device to skip critical security instructions.

Complexity: Low
Typical Targets: IoT devices, microcontrollers

2. Clock Glitching

By injecting timing faults into a device’s clock signals, this method disrupts how data is processed, often bypassing authentication steps.

Complexity: Medium
Typical Targets: Embedded systems like gaming consoles

3. Electromagnetic (EM) Glitching

Here, electromagnetic pulses are used to interfere with a chip's functioning. Precision is key for this attack, but it’s powerful enough to breach secure enclaves.

Complexity: High
Typical Targets: Smartcards, secure crypto modules

4. Thermal Glitching

Overheating or cooling down a device outside its operational range can lead to unexpected behavior, making it vulnerable to security breaches.

Complexity: Low
Typical Targets: Consumer embedded devices

Attack Method	Difficulty	Typical Targets
Voltage Glitching	Low	IoT, microcontrollers
Clock Glitching	Medium	Gaming consoles, embedded systems
EM Glitching	High	Smartcards, secure chips
Thermal Glitching	Low	Consumer-grade devices

How Glitching Works

Glitching attacks require precision and specialized tools to succeed. They typically target secure processors or embedded systems during sensitive operations like:

Boot processes
Cryptographic validations
Password authentication

Here’s how it usually plays out:

An attacker identifies where sensitive operations occur (e.g., key encryption, memory loading).
Using tools like oscilloscopes or voltage injectors, they deliver carefully timed disruptions.
If successful, the device skips or misexecutes instructions, allowing the attacker to bypass security checks or extract confidential data.

Example: During a secure boot process, glitching might cause the device to skip signature verification, thus booting untrusted software.

Is your head spinning yet? Don’t worry; it all boils down to one thing: timing is everything in glitching. The attacker must test, tweak, and iterate… a lot.

Tools Hardware Hackers Use

Glitching requires more than just a criminal mindset. Hackers need:

Tools of the trade: Devices like ChipWhisperer and GlitchKit
Testing equipment: Oscilloscopes, signal generators, and custom voltage injectors
Access points: Debug interfaces (e.g., UART, JTAG) for monitoring and injection

This isn’t your everyday cyberattack a lone hacker can pull off from a basement. Glitching is deliberate, technical, and often pricey.

Real-World Examples of Glitching

If you assume glitching is rare, think again. Here are some notable real-world attacks:

Gaming Consoles: Glitching was famously used to mod PlayStations and bypass DRM protections.
Smartphones: Attackers successfully bypassed secure enclaves, exposing encrypted data.
IoT Devices: Researchers extracted firmware from IoT devices like smart cameras and routers using voltage glitching.
Smartcards: Cryptographic modules in banking cards fell victim to glitching, leaking sensitive keys.

Each example underscores the growing significance of hardware security in today’s connected world.

Glitching in Offensive Security

Glitching isn’t just used for malicious purposes. It also plays a crucial role in legitimate penetration testing and red teaming. Offensive security professionals rely on glitching to:

Test and improve secure boot mechanisms
Reverse-engineer components of embedded systems
Evaluate vulnerabilities in IoT or industrial devices

For security researchers, glitching is more than an attack vector; it’s a tool for safeguarding critical technology.

Defending Against Glitching Attacks

Fortunately, there are effective ways to fend off glitching attacks. Here are some key defensive strategies:

Voltage and Clock Monitors: Use hardware-based methods like brownout detection to spot malicious disruptions.
Tamper-Resistant Designs: Encase chips in tamper-proof packaging with built-in mesh sensors.
Secure Boot Loops: Recheck cryptographic validations multiple times during the boot process.
Randomized Patterns: Add delays or randomized timings to make glitching harder to execute.
Compliance Standards: Follow security certifications like FIPS 140-3 for secure element design.

The more diverse and unpredictable a device's operation, the harder it becomes for attackers to inject successful glitches.

Why Glitching Matters

Glitching attacks aren’t just theoretical. They hold real-world implications for industries ranging from IoT to healthcare to finance.

Here’s why glitching is critical:

Exposes unseen vulnerabilities: Glitching bypasses even robust software defenses by targeting hardware directly.
Challenges critical infrastructure: Imagine if glitching were used against industrial control systems or medical devices.
Keeps cybersecurity evolving: Glitching highlights the need for hardware-aware defenses in cybersecurity frameworks.

With IoT and embedded devices becoming omnipresent, the need for glitch-hardened systems has never been greater.

The Difference Between Glitching and Other Hardware Attacks

Attack Type	Focus	Key Example
Glitching	Precise manipulation of conditions	Voltage or clock-based attacks
Side-Channel Attacks	Observing indirect information	Power/Electromagnetic analysis
Rowhammer	Fault injection via RAM rows	Flipping bits by repeated access
Cold Boot Attacks	Stealing data from RAM post-reboot	Extracting encryption keys from DRAM

Each has its own toolsets and targets, with varying levels of difficulty and application.

Legal And Ethical Considerations

Before you dust off your ChipWhisperer, know that glitching without permission is illegal! However:

Ethical Use: Glitching plays a vital role in academic security research, competitions, and penetration testing (with permission).
Regulated Disclosure: Glitch findings should be responsibly disclosed to affected manufacturers.

With ethics and intent in mind, glitching can guide innovation rather than disrupt it.

Building Resilience Against Glitching

Glitching isn’t going away. If anything, its relevance is only growing as IoT devices, automotive systems, and industrial controls rely more heavily on hardware-layer security.

To stay safe: