Hardware

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Visible to the public CRII: SaTC: Rethinking Side Channel Security on Untrusted Operating Systems

Recent advances of isolated execution technologies, especially the emergence of Intel Software Guard eXtension (SGX), revolutionize the model of computer security and empower programs with sensitive data and code to be shielded from untrusted operating systems. However, their security guarantees have not yet been thoroughly investigated against the notorious vector of information leakage side-channel attacks. It is conceivable that side-channel attacks with full control of the underlying operating system are more diverse, efficient and robust than those from unprivileged programs.

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Visible to the public CRII: SaTC: Hardware based Authentication and Trusted Platform Module functions (HAT) for IoTs

Crucial and critical needs of security and trust requirements are growing in all classes of applications such as in automobiles and for wearable devices. Traditional cryptographic primitives are computation-intensive and rely on secrecy of shared or session keys, applicable on large systems like servers and secure databases. This is unsuitable for embedded devices with fewer resources for realizing sufficiently strong security. This research addresses new hardware-oriented capabilities and mechanisms for protecting Internet of Things (IoT) devices.

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Visible to the public CRII: SaTC CPS: RUI: Cyber-Physical System Security in Implantable Insulin Injection Systems

Increasingly medical devices are dependent on software and the wireless channel for their operations, which also pose new vulnerabilities to their safe, dependable, and trustworthy operations. Medical devices such as implantable insulin pumps, which are in wide use today, continuously monitor and manage a patient's diabetes without the need for frequent daily patient interventions. These devices, not originally designed against cyber security threats, must now mitigate these threats.

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Visible to the public CI-EN: Trust-Hub: Development of Benchmarks, Metrics, and Validation Platforms for Hardware Security, and a Web-based Dissemination Portal

The growing hardware security community is faced with an immediate need to develop effective tools and benchmarks. The purpose of this project is to lead a community-wide movement toward stronger assurances in our integrated circuits, computational platforms, and electronics supply chain.

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Visible to the public SaTC-EDU: EAGER: CFEAR: Cyber Forensics Education via Augmented Reality

Creative educational and research programs need to be developed that will inspire young adults (also known as millennials) to pursue critical skills needed to drive our cybersecurity and STEM future and close the ever increasing cybersecurity talent gap. In this regard, educators and researchers must develop innovative curriculum incorporating emerging technologies, in addition to the theoretical content, to help cultivate and retain a highly skilled cybersecurity workforce.

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Visible to the public STARSS: Small: Detection of Hardware Trojans Hidden in Unspecified Design Functionality

Concern about the security and reliability of our electronic systems and infrastructure is at an all-time high. Economic factors dictate that the design, manufacturing, testing, and deployment of silicon chips are spread across many companies and countries with different and often conflicting goals and interests. In modern complex digital designs, behaviors at a good fraction of observable output signals for many operational cycles are unspecified and vulnerable to malicious modifications, known as Hardware Trojans.

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Visible to the public  SaTC: STARSS: Design of Low-Cost Memory-Based Security Primitives and Techniques for High-Volume Products

Ensuring a high level of security and reliability in the electronic computing devices is a significant challenge. Central issues include secure and reliable identification, authentication and integrity checking of underlying hardware. Hardware-based security primitives such as physical unclonable functions (PUFs) are still a work-in-progress in terms of the cost they require to guarantee reliable operation and their resistance to physical attacks.

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Visible to the public TWC: TTP Option: Frontier: Collaborative: MACS: A Modular Approach to Cloud Security

The goal of the Modular Approach to Cloud Security (MACS) project is to develop methods for building information systems with meaningful multi-layered security guarantees. The modular approach of MACS focuses on systems that are built from smaller and separable functional components, where the security of each component is asserted individually, and where the security of the system as a whole can be derived from the security of its components. The project concentrates on building outsourced, cloud-based information services with client-centric security guarantees.

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Visible to the public TWC: Small: Self-Recovering Certificate Authorities using Backward and Forward Secure Key Management

Recent years have shown the fallacy of Certificate Authorities (CAs); insiders are able to steal master signing keys and impersonate certificates, exploitation of system vulnerabilities and other means of infiltration allow attackers to gain access to CAs and copy their keys, etc. At stake is the mere survival of public key infrastructures as trust in them is bootstrapped from trust in certificates that bind public keys to known identities. The current attack surface exposed by CAs makes trust in their issued certificates questionable.

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Visible to the public STARSS: Small: Collaborative: Physical Design for Secure Split Manufacturing of ICs

The trend of outsourcing semiconductor manufacturing to oversea foundries has introduced several security vulnerabilities -- reverse engineering, malicious circuit insertion, counterfeiting, and intellectual property piracy -- making the semiconductor industry lose billions of dollars. Split manufacturing of integrated circuits reduces vulnerabilities introduced by an untrusted foundry by manufacturing only some of the layers at an untrusted high-end foundry and the remaining layers at a trusted low-end foundry.