Detecting Malicious Logic Through Structural Checking

• Published in: 2007 IEEE Region 5 Technical Conference pp. 217 - 222
• Main Authors: Smith, S.C., Jia Di
• Format: Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Published: IEEE 01.04.2007
• Subjects: Application specific integrated circuits; Automatic testing; Circuit testing; Data engineering; Design automation; Hardware; Logic design; Logic testing; Phase detection; System testing
• ISBN: 142441279X; 9781424412792
• DOI: 10.1109/TPSD.2007.4380384

Hardware is just as susceptible as software to "hacker attacks", through inclusion of malicious logic; and the consequences of such an attack could be disastrous! The impact of software viruses has been felt, at one time or another, by the entire computerized world, through loss of productivity, loss of system resources or data, or mere inconvenience. However, the nature of malicious logic and defending against it is fundamentally different from its software counterpart. Malicious logic has the added dimension of not being removable once encapsulated in the system. This paper will identify hardware vulnerabilities and will outline an automated method, called structural checking, to detect and prevent malicious logic from becoming incorporated into an ASIC, which could cause catastrophic system failure, security breaches, or other dire consequences.