Hardware security and test: Friends or enemies?

Abstract

Abstract:Hardware security is a relatively new scientific discipline which focuses on adversarial threats to hardware components of complex systems and infrastructures, including manipulation, unauthorized access to confidential data, and intellectual property theft. State-of-the-art test methods can contribute to detection and elimination of security threats but also may introduce new vulnerabilities. This article will explain this dichotomy and outline current research challenges.

Towards Secure Composition of Integrated Circuits and Electronic Systems: On the Role of EDA

“…Testability is crucial, yet contradictory to security to some degree [56]. That is because test, diagnosis, and debug features enable comprehensive access to IC internals, providing an attacker the opportunity to read out sensitive information (e.g., via scan-based attacks [39]).…”