STARSS: Small: Collaborative: Specification and Verification for Secure Hardware

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There is a growing need for techniques to detect security vulnerabilities in hardware and at the hardware-software interface. Such vulnerabilities arise from the use of untrusted supply chains for processors and system-on-chip components and from the scope for malicious agents to subvert a system by exploiting hardware defects arising from design errors, incomplete specifications, or maliciously inserted blocks. This project addresses the problem by developing foundational techniques and tools for formal and semi-formal specification and verification of security properties of hardware. This project addresses gaps in the current specification and verification processes for hardware designs. Given a design and a (possibly informal) specification, the approach first identifies signals that correspond to high-integrity or confidential parts of the design, such as privileged mode flags or secret keys. The approach uses this information to perform critical signal analysis, specification generation, security-aware specification analysis, and test characterization and augmentation. These steps are iterated until a suitable level of security assurance is attained. The methods build upon formal computational engines for Boolean reasoning, symbolic simulation, and model checking. The project is evaluated using case studies based on processor cores and non-processor blocks, where each case study includes both offensive and defensive components. Tangible results will include theories, threat models, software tools, benchmarks, and case studies. Results from the project are incorporated into courses and textbooks written by the PIs to teach students how to design systems with a security mindset.