TC: Small: THWART: Trojan Hardware in Wireless ICs - Analysis and Remedies for Trust

为了提高无线集成电路的可靠性，本项目研究了模拟/射频领域的硬件木马问题。硬件木马是对预制集成电路进行恶意修改，使其具有设计者和用户不知道的额外功能，但在芯片部署后，犯罪者可以利用这些功能来破坏或使其丧失能力，或窃取敏感信息。这项研究的动机有两个方面：首先，部分原因是设计外包和制造向全球低成本地区的迁移，部分原因是对外部知识产权和设计自动化软件的依赖增加，集成电路供应链现在被认为比以往任何时候都更容易受到这种恶意修改的影响。其次，无线集成电路是现代电子系统不可或缺的一部分，它们通过公共信道传输数据（可能是加密的）的能力使它们成为主要的攻击候选者。为了解决这个问题，本项目侧重于(i)描述无线加密ic中硬件木马的威胁和潜在影响，（ii）阐明现有测试方法在暴露它们方面的缺点，（iii）制定混淆芯片设计和使硬件木马开发复杂化的预防性对策，以及（iv）设计基于统计分析和机器学习的有效硬件木马检测方法。本研究的预期影响在于更好地了解硬件木马威胁，并开发适当的补救措施，从而实现无线集成电路的安全部署，并促进技术的可信度。

Towards enhancing trustworthiness of wireless integrated circuits, this project investigates the problem of hardware Trojans in the analog/RF domain. Hardware Trojans are maliciously-intended modifications to fabricated integrated circuits, making them capable of additional functionality which is unknown to the designer and user, but which can be exploited by the perpetrator after chip deployment to sabotage or incapacitate it, or to steal sensitive information. The motivation for this research is two-fold: First, partly because of design outsourcing and migration of fabrication to low-cost areas across the globe, and partly because of increased reliance on external intellectual property and design automation software, the integrated circuit supply chain is now considered far more vulnerable to such malicious modifications than ever before. Second, wireless integrated circuits constitute an indispensable part of modern electronic systems and their ability to communicate data (possibly encrypted) over public channels makes them a prime attack candidate. To address this problem, this project focuses on (i) delineating the threat and potential impact of hardware Trojans in wireless cryptographic ICs, (ii) elucidating the shortcomings of existing test methods in exposing them, (iii) developing preventive countermeasures for obfuscating the chip design and complicating the development of hardware Trojans, and (iv) devising efficient hardware Trojan detection methods based on statistical analysis and machine learning. The anticipated impact of this research lies in the attainment of a better understanding of the hardware Trojan threat and in the development of appropriate remedies, thus enabling secure deployment of wireless integrated circuits and fostering technology trustworthiness.