Patent ID: 7894978

Claim:
A tamper detection system for a control module of a vehicle, comprising: first nonvolatile memory that stores N rewriteable components each including at least one of calibration data and code that is used to operate a controlled device of said vehicle, wherein N is an integer greater than zero, wherein said N rewriteable components each include an embedded part number (EPN) and an embedded verification number (EVN); second nonvolatile memory that includes a history buffer that stores said EPNs and said EVNs of said N rewriteable components; a tampering detection module that includes: a calculated verification number (CVN) generator that generates a CVN for each of said N rewriteable components and that stores a combination of said CVN, said EPN and said EVN of each of said N rewriteable components in said history buffer; and a locking module that selectively locks said history buffer when (i) a first one of said EPNs of a first one of said N rewriteable components matches a second one of said EPNs of a second one of said N rewriteable components and (ii) at least one of: said CVN of said first one of said N rewriteable components is different than said CVN of said second one of said N rewriteable components; and said CVN of said second one of said N rewriteable components is different than said EVN of said first one of said N rewriteable components.