Verifying Side-Channel Security Pre-Silicon

By Bryon Moyer - 03 Mar, 2022 - Comments: 1

As security grows in importance, side-channel attacks pose a unique challenge because they rely on physical phenomena that aren’t always modeled for the design verification process. While everything can be hacked, the goal is to make it so difficult that an attacker concludes it isn't worth the effort. For side-channel attacks, the pre-silicon design is the best place to address any known ... » read more

DPA Countermeasures Done Right

By Bart Stevens - 03 Mar, 2022 - Comments: 0

In the late nineties, Paul Kocher, Josh Jaffe, and Ben Jun published a paper that caused many across industry sectors to reconsider what cryptographic implementations should look like. They described an exploit wherein an adversary could extract secrets from a device by analyzing the power consumption or electromagnetic emittance from the device when it was executing cryptographic operations. S... » read more

A Low-Power BLS12-381 Pairing Cryptoprocessor for Internet-of-Things Security Applications

By Technical Paper Link - 21 Feb, 2022 - Comments: 0

Abstract: "We present the first BLS12-381 elliptic-curve pairing cryptoprocessor for Internet-of-Things (IoT) security applications. Efficient finite-field arithmetic and algorithm-architecture co-optimizations together enable two orders of magnitude energy savings. We implement several countermeasures against timing and power side-channel attacks. Our cryptoprocessor is programmable to provid... » read more

FortifyIQ: Hardware Security Verification

By Zoya Hasan - 18 Jan, 2022 - Comments: 0

What’s the best way to protect against side-channel attacks? FortifyIQ believes the answer lies at least partly in the verification process. Side channel and fault-injection attacks have been garnering more attention lately as hackers continue to branch out from software to a combination of software and hardware. This is especially worrying for safety-critical applications, such as automot... » read more

Quantifiable Assurance: From IPs to Platforms

By Technical Paper Link - 10 Jan, 2022 - Comments: 0

Abstract: "Hardware vulnerabilities are generally considered more difficult to fix than software ones because of their persistent nature after fabrication. Thus, it is crucial to assess the security and fix the potential vulnerabilities in the earlier design phases, such as Register Transfer Level (RTL), gate-level or physical layout. The focus of the existing security assessment techniques i... » read more

An End-to-End Bitstream Tamper Attack Against Flip-Chip FPGAs

By Technical Paper Link - 10 Jan, 2022 - Comments: 0

Abstract "FPGA bitstream encryption and authentication can be defeated by various techniques and it is critical to understand how these vulnerabilities enable extraction and tampering of commercial FPGA bitstreams. We exploit the physical vulnerability of bitstream encryption keys to readout using failure analysis equipment and conduct an end-to-end bitstream tamper attack. Our work undersco... » read more

Why It’s So Difficult — And Costly — To Secure Chips

By Ed Sperling - 02 Dec, 2021 - Comments: 0

Rising concerns about the security of chips used in everything from cars to data centers are driving up the cost and complexity of electronic systems in a variety of ways, some obvious and others less so. Until very recently, semiconductor security was viewed more as a theoretical threat than a real one. Governments certainly worried about adversaries taking control of secure systems through... » read more

AI/ML Workloads Need Extra Security

By Bryon Moyer - 15 Nov, 2021 - Comments: 0

The need for security is pervading all electronic systems. But given the growth in data-center machine-learning computing, which deals with extremely valuable data, some companies are paying particular attention to handling that data securely. All of the usual data-center security solutions must be brought to bear, but extra effort is needed to ensure that models and data sets are protected ... » read more

A Deeper Look into RowHammer’s Sensitivities: Experimental Analysis of Real DRAM Chips and Implications on Future Attacks and Defenses

By Technical Paper Link - 14 Nov, 2021 - Comments: 0

Abstract "RowHammer is a circuit-level DRAM vulnerability where repeatedly accessing (i.e., hammering) a DRAM row can cause bit flips in physically nearby rows. The RowHammer vulnerability worsens as DRAM cell size and cell-to-cell spacing shrink. Recent studies demonstrate that modern DRAM chips, including chips previously marketed as RowHammer-safe, are even more vulnerable to RowHammer than... » read more

2021 CWE Most Important Hardware Weaknesses

By Technical Paper Link - 28 Oct, 2021 - Comments: 0

"The 2021 CWE™ Most Important Hardware Weaknesses is the first of its kind and the result of collaboration within the Hardware CWE Special Interest Group (SIG), a community forum for individuals representing organizations within hardware design, manufacturing, research, and security domains, as well as academia and government. The goals for the 2021 Hardware List are to drive awarenes... » read more

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Knowledge Centers
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tag: hardware security