File Formats
File Formats (Projects and Traces)
This page explains some of the file formats used in the ChipWhisperer Software.
Project Files
Project files are stored as a simple text-file. The most basic file will include information about stored traces, along with some basic project file information.
As an example, the following shows a simple project file named "test_cw305_artix100_10k_4seg.cwp":[Trace Management]
tracefile0 = test_cw305_artix100_10k_4seg_data\traces\config_2016.05.15-18.21.25_.cfg
enabled0 = True
tracefile1 = test_cw305_artix100_10k_4seg_data\traces\config_2016.05.15-18.26.48_.cfg
enabled1 = True
tracefile2 = test_cw305_artix100_10k_4seg_data\traces\config_2016.05.15-18.32.03_.cfg
enabled2 = True
tracefile3 = test_cw305_artix100_10k_4seg_data\traces\config_2016.05.15-18.37.27_.cfg
enabled3 = True
[ChipWhisperer]
[[General Settings]]
Project Name = Untitled
Program Name = ChipWhisperer
Project File Version = 1.00
Project Author = Unknown
Program Version = V3.0[Trace Management] section. These contain links to the trace data stored in the project. The specific link is to a configuration file, which is described below.
Normally, in the same folder that the .cwp file is located will be a folder with the same suffix. For example if you have a file called supersecret_aes_test.cwp, there will be a directory called supersecret_aes_test. This directory will contain the trace data along with additional files generated during analysis. Note it's not required that all files are located in this directory, as you can reference another location.
If you perform capture before saving a project file, files will be written to a temporary directory. In this case your project file will reference this temporary directory. Files may not be automatically moved out of this temporary directory when you save a project, but you can always use the "Consolidate" option to force all data to be moved into the project file directory.
Trace Files
Trace files in the ChipWhisperer software are defined through a configuration file, with the suffix .cfg. Any trace added to the ChipWhisperer project will have a configuration file - this file does not store data, but tells the software where it is stored and what format it is stored in.
While ChipWhisperer has a "native" file format, you can also interface to existing files. We'll first look at the configuration file before exploring the