Abstract
Hardware Trojans are a major concern for integrated circuits. All parts of the electronics supply chain are vulnerable to this threat. Trojans can be inserted directly by a rogue employee or through a compromised computer-aided design tool at each step of the design cycle, including an alteration of the design files in the early stages and the fabrication process in a third-party malicious foundry. While Trojan insertion during the latter stages has been largely investigated, we focus on high-level synthesis (HLS) tools as a likely attack vector. HLS tools are used to generate intellectual property blocks from high-level specifications. To demonstrate the threat, we compromised an open-source HLS tool to inject three examples of HLS-aided hardware Trojans with functional and nonfunctional effects. Our results show that a black-hat HLS tool can be successfully used to maliciously alter electronic circuits to add latency, drain energy, or undermine the security of cryptographic hardware cores. This threat is an important security concern to address.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Journal | IEEE Transactions on Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI) Systems |
| DOIs | |
| State | Accepted/In press - Jan 1 2018 |
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Keywords
- Companies
- Hardware
- Hardware Trojan
- high-level synthesis (HLS)
- intellectual property (IP).
- IP networks
- Security
- Tools
- Trojan horses
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Software
- Hardware and Architecture
- Electrical and Electronic Engineering
Cite this
Black-Hat High-Level Synthesis : Myth or Reality? / Pilato, Christian; Basu, Kanad; Regazzoni, Francesco; Karri, Ramesh.
In: IEEE Transactions on Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI) Systems, 01.01.2018.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - Black-Hat High-Level Synthesis
T2 - Myth or Reality?
AU - Pilato, Christian
AU - Basu, Kanad
AU - Regazzoni, Francesco
AU - Karri, Ramesh
PY - 2018/1/1
Y1 - 2018/1/1
N2 - Hardware Trojans are a major concern for integrated circuits. All parts of the electronics supply chain are vulnerable to this threat. Trojans can be inserted directly by a rogue employee or through a compromised computer-aided design tool at each step of the design cycle, including an alteration of the design files in the early stages and the fabrication process in a third-party malicious foundry. While Trojan insertion during the latter stages has been largely investigated, we focus on high-level synthesis (HLS) tools as a likely attack vector. HLS tools are used to generate intellectual property blocks from high-level specifications. To demonstrate the threat, we compromised an open-source HLS tool to inject three examples of HLS-aided hardware Trojans with functional and nonfunctional effects. Our results show that a black-hat HLS tool can be successfully used to maliciously alter electronic circuits to add latency, drain energy, or undermine the security of cryptographic hardware cores. This threat is an important security concern to address.
AB - Hardware Trojans are a major concern for integrated circuits. All parts of the electronics supply chain are vulnerable to this threat. Trojans can be inserted directly by a rogue employee or through a compromised computer-aided design tool at each step of the design cycle, including an alteration of the design files in the early stages and the fabrication process in a third-party malicious foundry. While Trojan insertion during the latter stages has been largely investigated, we focus on high-level synthesis (HLS) tools as a likely attack vector. HLS tools are used to generate intellectual property blocks from high-level specifications. To demonstrate the threat, we compromised an open-source HLS tool to inject three examples of HLS-aided hardware Trojans with functional and nonfunctional effects. Our results show that a black-hat HLS tool can be successfully used to maliciously alter electronic circuits to add latency, drain energy, or undermine the security of cryptographic hardware cores. This threat is an important security concern to address.
KW - Companies
KW - Hardware
KW - Hardware Trojan
KW - high-level synthesis (HLS)
KW - intellectual property (IP).
KW - IP networks
KW - Security
KW - Tools
KW - Trojan horses
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UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85059286395&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1109/TVLSI.2018.2884742
DO - 10.1109/TVLSI.2018.2884742
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85059286395
JO - IEEE Transactions on Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI) Systems
JF - IEEE Transactions on Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI) Systems
SN - 1063-8210
ER -