Of Boot Vectors and Double Glitches: Bypassing RP2350's Secure Boot

Raspberry Pi dared the internet to break its new RP2350 microcontroller—and the internet said “hold my soldering iron.” In a public challenge, researchers found five ways to bypass the chip’s “secure boot,” the safety check that should block untrusted code. Highlights from the talk: fault injection (electrical chaos) to jump past verification, a double glitch to peek at one-time secrets, and even laser pokes to nudge the boot process. Raspberry Pi’s response? Own it, fix it, and ship a revised chip—leaning hard into “security through transparency.”

The comments lit up with a classroom vs commerce battle. michaelt side-eyed the whole “can’t reprogram” fuse idea, asking if Raspberry Pi is pivoting from school desks to factory floors. Teachers fretted about students accidentally bricking boards; hardware nerds cheered that real-world security belongs in beginner kits; and cynics joked “double glitch, double espresso” while posting “Secure Boot: optional” memes. Some praised Raspberry Pi for inviting hackers in, paying bounties, and publishing the bruises; others warned about lockdown creeping into hobby gear. Verdict from the crowd: awesome transparency, spicy future—because the RP2350 now has both glitch detectors and a community determined to glitch harder.