Project Details
Description
Overview:
Semiconductor-based hardware is the foundation of interconnected and intelligent systems--from
personal computers and mobile phones to Internet, financial, energy, and other critical infrastructure
systems. As we increasingly depend upon these systems in our everyday lives, their trustworthiness
and security are more critical than ever. Since the software trustworthiness can only be built
upon the trustworthiness of hardware, the assurance and security of hardware has become an
important problem that cannot be avoided.
Design and manufacture of complex semiconductor circuits and systems requires many steps,
and one design could involve hundreds of engineers,typically distributed across multiple locations
and organizations worldwide. Moreover, the deployment of IP blocks from different sources
has become a common practice. The conventional processes and tools for design and manufacture
of semiconductors at most ensure the correctness, that is, the resulting product does what
it is supposed to do. However, to date, these processes do not provide confidence about whether
the chip is altered such that it provides unauthorized access or control. Such undesirable
behavior can be due to a weakness in the design that results in an unintentional side channel
or due to maliciously inserted Trojan hardware.
In this research, we propose one approach called Invariant-Carrying Machine (ICM) for hardware
assurance. This approach is based on the concept of light-weight formal method and only requires
minor additions over the conventional design process. In this approach, each design will carry
with it an inductive invariant that is used to guarantee its security. When receiving a design
from the third party or after a complex design process, the user can check whether the circuit
inductively satisfies the invariant and whether the invariant satisfies the security rules.
Any violation will raise a red flag for deploying the design. The project will in
Status | Finished |
---|---|
Effective start/end date | 10/1/14 → 9/30/17 |
Funding
- Semiconductor Research Corporation (2014-TS-2559)
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