A great idea for hardware hacking training: spotting fake chip components in products (yes, they’re already here). 🪲👨🔧🏴☠💵
Electronics engineers and technical assistants at Oklahoma State University - Haniye Mehraban, Saad Azmeen-ur-Rahman, and John Hu - shared a work-in-progress paper describing an unfortunate incident that turned into a fascinating experiment with students.
Students in a junior-level electronics course discovered that some parts in their lab kits were counterfeit. What started as a problem quickly became a learning opportunity. They dove into the search for fake components and gained real-world insight into part variability and supply chain challenges.
From a security perspective, this paper highlights a serious shift in assumptions. I had assumed that supply chain attacks were expensive and required significant resources. But apparently, a supply chain attack can actually save money for the supplier, since counterfeit components are cheaper.
I wonder if the laptop I'm writing this post on has all genuine components inside. :)
Enjoy the paper - try it out with your teams and trainees, and share your results!
More details:
WIP: Turning Fake Chips into Learning Opportunities [PDF]: https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.13281
