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Altera_Forum
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19 years ago

Encryption for remote upgrade

Hi, Our system is running a webserver. We want to be able to remotely upgrade the unit, i.e. be able to email a customer a file which he can install on a local computer. Than you would browse t...
Altera_Forum's avatar
Altera_Forum
Icon for Honored Contributor rankHonored Contributor
19 years ago

Hello Mike,

In the past I had to solve a similar task so it’s possible that I have some good information for you. I decided to use 3DES (please don’t ask why). Under the following link you can get a very useful source-code: http://jean.downloads.port5.com/3des_src.htm (http://jean.downloads.port5.com/3des_src.htm)

The source code can be used within the Nios firmware and within the Visul Studio Project. It’s very likely that you can get some ready components for Visual Studio too.

In my opinion these steps are necessary:

1. Merge the binary flash data for the FPGA configuration and the Nios firmware.

2. Calculate the CRC32 of the data

3. Encrypt all with 3DES or something else (block code)

4. Send the whole data to your Nios

5. The Nios firmware decrypts all

6. Check the CRC32 - it must be the same  as above

7. Program your flash with it

Unfortunately I don’t have ready source code you can use. But if you have questions feel free to ask.

Regards,

niosIIuser