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Modifications to integrated circuits (ICs) or the insertion of foreign intellectual property pose a serious threat to U.S. sovereignty, as ICs are found in many consumer electronic devices, including phones, computers, and televisions. More importantly, many commercial and military U.S. assets rely on ICs for computation and management of critical infrastructure such as banking, energy, and defense systems. The primary impact of the proposed work is to improve the security of U.S. electronic assets by assuring that the integrated circuits placed in these critical systems do not include functions or modified functions that compromise the integrity of the ICs running these complex systems.
The research will implement a run-time detection methodology based on the noise on the power distribution network to effectively detect, locate, and recover from malicious circuit modifications. A novel application of game theory will be utilized to optimally place voltage sensors on the power distribution network to enhance the detection of hardware Trojans, and therefore, increase the cost on the adversary to develop and implement an attack. In addition, the project aims to develop two techniques to recover from the activation of a hardware Trojan: 1) logic encryption key manipulation, and 2) a segmented power distribution network for locally powering off sections of an IC. Algorithms to automate the insertion of circuits that detect hardware modifications will also be developed, leading to long term and widespread use of the proposed methodologies by the semiconductor industry. Overall, the project strongly complements ongoing research examining hardware Trojan detection and countermeasures. The outcome of the proposed research will result in novel circuit techniques and methodologies to detect and neutralize circuit anomalies due to adversarial modifications, as well as design IP that improves the robustness of an IC against circuit attacks. The educational goal of the project is the development of secure IC design practices for the detection, identification, and localization of hardware modifications. A course related to the proposed research and its applications will be developed and offered to graduate and advanced undergraduate students.
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EAGER: Securing Integrated Circuits Through Realtime Hardware Trojan Detection