This 3D-printed laser chip-hacking tool uses a $20 laser, costs $500 to make, and was designed so that "people can do this at home"

Laser hacking. Laser hacking or, to use a more technical term for one method, "laser error injection" is a phrase that tells us we are already living in the futuristic world I imagined as a child. Laser-based hacking isn't new, but it would require expensive and advanced machinery to perform such a trick.

The RayV Lite is a 3D printable, open-source solution that two hackers from the security firm NetSPI will present at the Black Hat conference in Las Vegas this week. (via Wired). The duo hopes that by using components readily available and costing only $500 to build, they can bring laser hacking into the hands of the masses.

A primer first: Modern chips use transistors which are incredibly small. They're so small that even tiny variations in voltage can cause them to malfunction. Laser hacking devices use the laser fault injection technique to cause glitches on chips by using a laser blast that is precisely targeted and timed.

Hackers can gain access to chip capabilities by identifying the exact time and location to focus a laser.

Normaly, it would take a lot of money and expensive hardware to achieve this effect. Sam Beaumont and Larry "Patch Trowell" have created a tool using a set that is widely available and relatively inexpensive components, such as a $20 laser, a Raspberry pi, and a 3D printed open source microscope design, to achieve the same result.

After being told by their clients that laser hacking and other similar attacks were too expensive and therefore not a priority to secure against, the creators hope to encourage manufacturers to secure chips from laser hacking. They hope to demonstrate that DIYers and hobbyists can now carry out such attacks by creating a device which costs $500.

Beaumont says, "We are not discovering anything new in the sense that lasers have been used this way by other people before." "We're doing this at a lower price, so that people could do this in their own homes."

In testing, a chip that was glitched by a laser allowed hackers to scan its code and identify vulnerabilities. Researchers say that cryptocurrency wallets protected with a PIN can also be vulnerable.

You take the chip out of the crypto wallet and hit it with the laser at the right moment. It will assume that you have the PIN. It simply skips the instructions and gives you the key."

The first version will be focused on laser fault injection. A later version will use a different method based on laser logic state imaging. This advanced technique uses a scanner to map data and the activity of a chip to reveal vulnerabilities.

While laser-based hacking techniques may seem like something straight out of science fiction novels to some, this tool could be a great way for a new generation hobbyists get into the act of messing around with the precious electrons that flow around our electronic devices.

Security is paramount, but having a relatively inexpensive tool that can target, interrupt, and reveal the inner-workings of silicon will hopefully help many to better understand the technology. Either your hardware crypto wallet is now more vulnerable to lasers than to simply slipping down the backs of sofas. Or, given the volatility of crypto markets, it could become an expensive paperweight.