TWC: Medium: Title: SDR Shield: A Hardware-based Security Solution for Software Defined Radio

软件定义无线电(SDR)技术具有在软件中实现大部分物理层功能的灵活性。它是将为数百万美国居民提供宽带服务的主要技术之一。然而，与射频信号由FCC认证的硬件严格控制的传统无线电不同，SDR的软件组件很容易被黑客利用，创建各种未经授权的波形，对许多安全关键的无线系统发动攻击。现有的基于软件的安全防范措施无法防范无数潜在的软件安全漏洞，自身往往成为恶意软件的攻击目标。本项目的目标是设计一种有效的基于硬件的SDR完整性评估和行为调节装置SDR Shield。SDR Shield位于易受攻击的SDR软件和安全关键型SDR硬件之间，可检测RF设备的任何恶意配置并防止其被用来攻击无线系统。SDR Shield使用来自不同SDR组件的侧通道和通信通道信息来检测与预期执行状态的偏差。SDR屏蔽还包括一个调节电路，以加强SDR操作的安全关键属性。为了维护SDR盾S的灵活性和自身的安全性，开发了一个安全的更新过程。SDR Shield？S设计的通用性为SDR设计提供了统一的安全机制，从而减轻了FCC或未来任何SDR设计验证机构对SDR产品安全措施的认证负担。

Software Defined Radio (SDR) technology has the flexibility of implementing a large part of physical layer functions in software. It is one of the major technologies that will provide broadband services to millions of US residences. However, unlike conventional radio whose RF signals are tightly regulated by FCC-certified hardware, the software components of SDR can be easily exploited by hackers to create a wide range of unauthorized waveforms to launch attacks on many security-critical wireless systems. The existing preventive software-based security counter measures are not possible to prevent the myriad of potential software security loopholes and themselves often become targets of the malware. The objective of this project is to design an effective hardware-based SDR integrity assessment and behavior regulation device named SDR Shield. SDR Shield resides between the vulnerable SDR software and the security-critical SDR hardware to detect any malicious configuration of the RF device and prevent it from being used to attack wireless systems. The SDR Shield uses side channel and communication channel information from different SDR components to detect deviations from expected execution status. SDR shield also includes a regulation circuit to enforce safety-critical properties of SDR operation. A secure update process is developed to maintain SDR shield?s flexibility and its own security. The generality of SDR Shield?s design provides a unified security mechanism for SDR design and hence can ease the burden on FCC or any future SDR design verification institutes in certifying security measures of SDR products.