Trojan

About: Trojan is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 2028 publications have been published within this topic receiving 33209 citations.

On design vulnerability analysis and trust benchmarks development

Abstract: The areas of hardware security and trust have experienced major growth over the past several years. However, research in Trojan detection and prevention lacks standard benchmarks and measurements, resulting in inconsistent research outcomes, and ambiguity in analyzing strengths and weaknesses in the techniques developed by different research teams and their advancements to the state-of-the-art. We have developed innovative methodologies that, for the first time, more effectively address the problem. We have developed a vulnerability analysis flow. The flow determines hard-to-detect areas in a circuit that would most probably be used for Trojan implementation to ensure a Trojan goes undetected during production test and extensive functional test analysis. Furthermore, we introduce the Trojan detectability metric to quantify Trojan activation and effect. This metric offers a fair comparison for analyzing weaknesses and strengths of Trojan detection techniques. Using these methodologies, we have developed a large number of trust benchmarks that are available for use by the public, as well as researchers and practitioners in the field.

Benchmarking of Hardware Trojans and Maliciously Affected Circuits

Abstract: Research in the field of hardware Trojans has seen significant growth in the past decade. However, standard benchmarks to evaluate hardware Trojans and their detection are lacking. To this end, we have developed a suite of Trojans and ‘trust benchmarks’ (i.e., benchmark circuits with a hardware Trojan inserted in them) that can be used by researchers in the community to compare and contrast various Trojan detection techniques. In this paper, we present a comprehensive vulnerability analysis flow at various levels of abstraction of digital-design, that has been utilized to create these trust benchmarks. Further, we present a detailed evaluation of our benchmarks in terms of metrics such as Trojan detectability, and in the context of different attack models. Finally, we discuss future work such as automatic Trojan insertion into any arbitrary circuit.

Hardware Trojan Detection by Multiple-Parameter Side-Channel Analysis

Abstract: Hardware Trojan attack in the form of malicious modification of a design has emerged as a major security threat. Sidechannel analysis has been investigated as an alternative to conventional logic testing to detect the presence of hardware Trojans. However, these techniques suffer from decreased sensitivity toward small Trojans, especially because of the large process variations present in modern nanometer technologies. In this paper, we propose a novel noninvasive, multiple-parameter side-channel analysisbased Trojan detection approach. We use the intrinsic relationship between dynamic current and maximum operating frequency of a circuit to isolate the effect of a Trojan circuit from process noise. We propose a vector generation approach and several design/test techniques to improve the detection sensitivity. Simulation results with two large circuits, a 32-bit integer execution unit (IEU) and a 128-bit advanced encryption standard (AES) cipher, show a detection resolution of 1.12 percent amidst ±20 percent parameter variations. The approach is also validated with experimental results. Finally, the use of a combined side-channel analysis and logic testing approach is shown to provide high overall detection coverage for hardware Trojan circuits of varying types and sizes.

Hardware Trojan Detection and Isolation Using Current Integration and Localized Current Analysis

Abstract: This paper addresses a new threat to the security of integrated circuits (ICs). The migration of IC fabrication to untrusted foundries has made ICs vulnerable to malicious alterations, that could, under specific conditions, result infunctional changes and/or catastrophic failure of the system in which they are embedded. Such malicious alternations and inclusions are referred to as Hardware Trojans. In this paper, we propose a current integration methodology to observe Trojan activity in the circuit and a localized current analysis approach to isolate the Trojan. Our simulation results considering process variations show that with a very small number of clock cycles the method can detect hardware Trojans as small as few gates without fully activating them. However, for very small Trojan circuits with less than few gates, process variations could negatively impact the detection and isolation process.

Security against hardware Trojan through a novel application of design obfuscation

Abstract: Malicious hardware Trojan circuitry inserted in safety-critical applications is a major threat to national security. In this work, we propose a novel application of a key-based obfus-cation technique to achieve security against hardware Trojans. The obfuscation scheme is based on modifying the state transition function of a given circuit by expanding its reachable state space and enabling it to operate in two distinct modes — the normal mode and the obfuscated mode. Such a modification obfuscates the rareness of the internal circuit nodes, thus making it difficult for an adversary to insert hard-to-detect Trojans. It also makes some inserted Trojans benign by making them activate only in the obfuscated mode. The combined effect leads to higher Trojan detectability and higher level of protection against such attack. Simulation results for a set of benchmark circuits show that the scheme is capable of achieving high levels of security at modest design overhead. Categories and Subject Descriptors B.6.1 [Logic Design]: Design Styles-sequential circuits; K.6.5 [Management of Computing and Information Systems]: Security and Protection-physical security General Terms Design, Security