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A Proactive Countermeasure to Harden Integrated Circuits Against Exploitation

Award Information
Agency: Department of Defense
Branch: Air Force
Contract: FA8650-11-M-1060
Agency Tracking Number: O102-IA1-1036
Amount: $95,489.00
Phase: Phase I
Program: SBIR
Solicitation Topic Code: OSD10-IA1
Solicitation Number: 2010.2
Timeline
Solicitation Year: 2010
Award Year: 2010
Award Start Date (Proposal Award Date): 2010-12-01
Award End Date (Contract End Date): 2011-06-01
Small Business Information
128 E Pine Avenue
Meridian, ID 83642
United States
DUNS: 800427838
HUBZone Owned: No
Woman Owned: No
Socially and Economically Disadvantaged: No
Principal Investigator
 Jack Meador
 Principal Engineer
 (208) 884-2138
 jack.meador@cmlab.biz
Business Contact
 Rick Hoover
Title: Principal
Phone: (208) 884-2138
Email: rphoover@cmlab.biz
Research Institution
N/A
Abstract

We propose to implement a novel countermeasure against the exploitation of integrated circuit hardware. The proposed countermeasure is applicable to both FPGAs and ASICs, increases design obfuscation and promises to block embedded hardware exploits. It also is fully compatible with virtually any other hardware exploit countermeasure and reduces forensic costs when exploits are suspected. The proposed approach is expected to be highly effective against a broad class of functional and firmware Trojans. The approach is also general enough to be effective against virtually any type of logical triggering mechanism. The CML PCI-CARMA software protection system will be used to demonstrate the principles of the proposed approach. PCI-CARMA employs FPGA-based COTS hardware, so it stands to directly benefit from the application of the proposed countermeasure. For Phase I, CML will first demonstrate hardware Trojan injection into a PCI-CARMA design. The proposed countermeasure will then be applied and its effectiveness against Trojan injection will be characterized in terms of invasiveness, false positive and false negative rates and its ability to detect small Trojans. The relative costs and benefits of the proposed approach will also be evaluated.

* Information listed above is at the time of submission. *

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