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One caveat to note is the LED needs to be connected to a GPIO port that the software can control.

That leads to the obvious question for high-value systems that may be targeted - presumably fixed systems not laptops/notebooks/tablets - are the activity/power LEDs commonly connected via software-controlled GPIOs or mostly part of the electronic circuit only ?

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They are usually connected to software controlled GPIOs, or at least should be assumed to be connected to them. What is not normal (for now) is analog peripherals hanging off of arbitrary pins or even being on the chip.

Looks like it's all doable digitally.

For a lot of chips changing the purpose of a pin may not be possible unless you are a nation state and have all of the design info on an ASIC.

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