Introduction Flashcards
Hardware Trojans
An attacker either in the design house or in the
foundry may add malicious circuits or modify existing circuits to bypass,
disable the security fence or destroy the chip.
IP piracy and IC overbuilding
An IP user or a rogue foundry may
illegally pirate the IP without the knowledge and consent of the designer. A
malicious foundry may build more than the required number of ICs and sell
the excess ICs in the gray market.
Reverse engineering (RE):
An attacker can reverse engineer the IC/IP
design to his/her desired abstraction level. He can then reuse the recovered
IP or improve it.
Side-channel analysis:
An attacker can extract the secret information or
secret keys by exploiting a physical modality (power consumption, timing, or
electromagnetic emission) of the hardware that executes the target
application.
Counterfeiting:
An attacker illegally forges or imitates the original
component/design.
IC
Integrated Circuit
Integrated Circuit (IC) Supply Chain And Security
Arising hardware security problems because of the global
trends in IC design, manufacturing, and distribution in the
supply chain.
Physical attack requirements
-direct access to the chip -connection to signals m equipment and knowledge
Physical attack Interaction:
Exploiting
some physical
characteristics of the
device
Physical attack Exploitation
Analyzing the
gathered information to
recover the secret
Attackers Class I: clever outsiders
- Insufficient knowledge of
the system - Limited access to the
equipment and tools
Attackers Class II: knowledgeable
insiders
-Knowledge of the system
-Access to tools and
equipment
Attackers Class III: funded
organizations
-Access to all resources
Attacker Motivations
-Direct theft of service or
money
-Sell of products
-Denial of Service
Cryptanalysis vs. Physical Attacks
- Cryptanalysis: mathematical analysis to find the theoretical weakness
- Physical attacks: exploit weakness in the implementation of the cryptographic algorithms
Modern Cryptographic Algorithms
- Symmetric-key and public-key cryptography
-Although the algorithm itself may not be broken, a
particular implementation may be vulnerable to
attacks.
Kerckhoffs’s principle:
A cryptosystem should be
secure even if everything about the system, except
the key, is public knowledge.
- For this reason modern cryptography algorithms get
evaluated and analyzed by the community, e.g., AES
standard process.
Non-invasive attacks
passive vs. active
- No device damage, no tamper
evidence
- Most low cost and repeatable
Invasive attacks
- Direct access to the inside of the chip/device - Reversible vs irreversible - Device damaged or tamper evidence left
Semi-invasive attacks
- Access to the surface of the chip
- but will not create contacts with
internal wires - Normally does not damage the system
- May or may not leave tamper evidence
- Moderate cost and some special skills
- Repeatable
- Cost and required skills vary, normally high
Side-channel attacks
-monitor/measure chip’s physical characteristics (power,
current, timing, EM radiation, etc.) during its normal
operation
- perform data analysis to learn information
Software attacks (non-invasive)
- use normal I/O interface
- exploit known security vulnerabilities in protocols, algorithms
and their software implementation
Reverse engineering (invasive)
- study chip’s inner structure and functionality
- high cost, the similar capability of the designer
Micro-probing (invasive)
- directly access the chip surface
- observe, manipulate, interfere with the chip
Fault generation (semi- or non-invasive)
- run in abnormal environmental conditions
- cause chip to malfunction, leak information, give additional
access
