[baybal2]

> physical attack is possible if one is willing to spend like over 100K per card.

Firmware recovery from "hardened" microcontrollers costs $15-25k here, and even that's most likely a "special foreigner price"

[baby]

It’s not about firmware recovery: it’s about tampering it in a non-intrusive way OR extracting keys from its secured non volatile memory.

[baybal2]

Yes, MCU with intentionally hardened flash blocks are what those firmware recoverers specialize. They do things like gemalto chips sim and credit cards.

[baby]

the firmware should not be in internal flash though, where the keys are