A hardware Trojan attack protection method for CGRCA configuration bitstream

Abstract

A protection method based on authentication and encryption hardware security engine is proposed as the reconfigurable device configuration bitstream is vulnerable to hardware Trojan attacks. Firstly, the security threats of system are analyzed in detail and the possible hardware attack process and implantation method for unencrypted original configuration flow are proposed, via researching on the structure and configuration process of coarse-grained reconfigurable cryptographic array(CGRCA). Aiming at the attack process, a protection method based on advanced CCM authentication and encryption is proposed. The method partially encrypts and authenticates the original configuration bitstream in software, and uses a dual security engine for decryption and authentication on the hardware to ensure the integrity and authenticity of the configuration bitstream. The experimental results show that the protection method can protect the configuration bit stream by protecting the configuration flow from potential hardware Trojan attack threat with small area and time overhead.

Keywords

• hardware trojan protection
• coarse-grained reconfigurable cryptographic array
• configuration bitstream protection
• dual hardware security engine