Managing Security in FPGA-Based Embedded Systems

Abstract

&BECAUSE FPGAS CAN provide a useful balance between performance, rapid time to market, and flexibility, they have become the primary source of computation in many critical embedded systems. 1,2 The aerospace industry, for example, relies on FPGAs to control everything from the Joint Strike Fighter to the Mars Rover. Face recognition systems, wireless networks, intrusion detection systems, and supercomputers, all of which are employed in large security applications, also use FPGAs. In fact, in 2005 alone, an estimated 80,000 different commercial FPGA design projects began. 3 Because major IC manufacturers outsource most of their operations, 4 IP theft from a foundry is a serious concern. FPGAs provide a viable solution to this problem because the sensitive IP is not loaded onto the device until after it has been manufactured and delivered, making it harder for adversaries to target a specific application or user. Furthermore, modern FPGAs use bitstream encryption and other methods to protect IP once it is loaded onto the FPGA or an external memory. However, techniques beyond bitstream encryption are necessary to ensure FPGA design security. To save time and money, FPGA systems are typically cobbled together from a collection of existing computational cores, often obtained from third parties. These cores can be subverted during the design phase, by tampering with the tools used to translate the design to the cores or by tampering with the cores themselves. Building every core and tool from scratch is not economically feasible in most cases, and subversion can affect both third-party cores and cores developed in-house. Therefore, embedded designers need methods for securely composing systems comprising both trusted and untrusted components. 590 FPGAs combine the programmability of processors with the performance of custom hardware. As they become more common in critical embedded systems, new techniques are necessary to manage security in FPGA designs. This article discusses FPGA security problems and current research on reconfigurable devices and security, and presents security primitives and a component architecture for building highly secure systems on FPGAs.

Hardware Implementation of Quasigroup Encryption for SCADA Networks

“…And FPGAs can be designed specifically to make reverse engineering difficult; Wollinger provides a good overview [23] on the reverse engineering process. Newer information is available in Huffmire [15]. The difficulty of reverse engineering makes FPGAs a good candidate for encryption.…”

Exploring formal verification methodology for FPGA-based digital systems.

“…In order to meet new challenges the systems need to be very robust and reliable. With the emergent technology in Integrated Circuits (IC), Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) are becoming more and more popular, both in traditional digital systems designs, and in mission-critical system components [11] [24]. Currently FPGAs can be delivered in 28nm node, with programmable logic blocks, configurable memory blocks, complex peripherals, and even embedded hardware Intellectual Property (IP) blocks.…”

Creation and Detection of Hardware Trojans Using Non-Invasive Off-The-Shelf Technologies

“…As technology advances, so does the demand for IC boards leaving many technology companies without the resources to produce secure enough ICs to meet current demands. This has pushed companies into the 'fabless' trend prevalent in today's semi-conductor industry, where companies are no longer attempting to produce the goods in their own factories, but instead are outsourcing the process to cheaper factories abroad [2,3].…”