A New Paradigm in Split Manufacturing: Lock the FEOL, Unlock at the BEOL
Split manufacturing was introduced as a countermeasure against hardware-level security threats such as IP piracy, overbuilding, and insertion of hardware Trojans. However, the security promise of split manufacturing has been challenged by various attacks which exploit the well-known working principl...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
MDPI AG
2022-05-01
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| Series: | Cryptography |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2410-387X/6/2/22 |
| _version_ | 1797488613938692096 |
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| author | Abhrajit Sengupta Mohammed Nabeel Mohammed Ashraf Johann Knechtel Ozgur Sinanoglu |
| author_facet | Abhrajit Sengupta Mohammed Nabeel Mohammed Ashraf Johann Knechtel Ozgur Sinanoglu |
| author_sort | Abhrajit Sengupta |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Split manufacturing was introduced as a countermeasure against hardware-level security threats such as IP piracy, overbuilding, and insertion of hardware Trojans. However, the security promise of split manufacturing has been challenged by various attacks which exploit the well-known working principles of design tools to infer the missing back-end-of-line (BEOL) interconnects. In this work, we define the security of split manufacturing formally and provide the associated proof, and we advocate accordingly for a novel, formally secure paradigm. Inspired by the notion of logic locking, we protect the front-end-of-line (FEOL) layout by embedding secret keys which are implemented through the BEOL in such a way that they become indecipherable to foundry-based attacks. At the same time, our technique is competitive with prior art in terms of layout overhead, especially for large-scale designs (ITC’99 benchmarks). Furthermore, another concern for split manufacturing is its practicality (despite successful prototyping). Therefore, we promote an alternative implementation strategy, based on package-level routing, which enables formally secure IP protection without splitting at all, and thus, without the need for a dedicated BEOL facility. We refer to this as “poor man’s split manufacturing” and we study the practicality of this approach by means of physical-design exploration. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-10T00:04:47Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-e2a4ff3b88ae4c9d9619d15b04208fee |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2410-387X |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-10T00:04:47Z |
| publishDate | 2022-05-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Cryptography |
| spelling | doaj.art-e2a4ff3b88ae4c9d9619d15b04208fee2023-11-23T16:11:05ZengMDPI AGCryptography2410-387X2022-05-01622210.3390/cryptography6020022A New Paradigm in Split Manufacturing: Lock the FEOL, Unlock at the BEOLAbhrajit Sengupta0Mohammed Nabeel1Mohammed Ashraf2Johann Knechtel3Ozgur Sinanoglu4Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, New York University (NYU), Brooklyn, NY 11201, USADivision of Engineering, New York University Abu Dhabi (NYU AD), Abu Dhabi 129188, United Arab EmiratesDivision of Engineering, New York University Abu Dhabi (NYU AD), Abu Dhabi 129188, United Arab EmiratesDivision of Engineering, New York University Abu Dhabi (NYU AD), Abu Dhabi 129188, United Arab EmiratesDivision of Engineering, New York University Abu Dhabi (NYU AD), Abu Dhabi 129188, United Arab EmiratesSplit manufacturing was introduced as a countermeasure against hardware-level security threats such as IP piracy, overbuilding, and insertion of hardware Trojans. However, the security promise of split manufacturing has been challenged by various attacks which exploit the well-known working principles of design tools to infer the missing back-end-of-line (BEOL) interconnects. In this work, we define the security of split manufacturing formally and provide the associated proof, and we advocate accordingly for a novel, formally secure paradigm. Inspired by the notion of logic locking, we protect the front-end-of-line (FEOL) layout by embedding secret keys which are implemented through the BEOL in such a way that they become indecipherable to foundry-based attacks. At the same time, our technique is competitive with prior art in terms of layout overhead, especially for large-scale designs (ITC’99 benchmarks). Furthermore, another concern for split manufacturing is its practicality (despite successful prototyping). Therefore, we promote an alternative implementation strategy, based on package-level routing, which enables formally secure IP protection without splitting at all, and thus, without the need for a dedicated BEOL facility. We refer to this as “poor man’s split manufacturing” and we study the practicality of this approach by means of physical-design exploration.https://www.mdpi.com/2410-387X/6/2/22split manufacturingproximity attacklogic locking |
| spellingShingle | Abhrajit Sengupta Mohammed Nabeel Mohammed Ashraf Johann Knechtel Ozgur Sinanoglu A New Paradigm in Split Manufacturing: Lock the FEOL, Unlock at the BEOL Cryptography split manufacturing proximity attack logic locking |
| title | A New Paradigm in Split Manufacturing: Lock the FEOL, Unlock at the BEOL |
| title_full | A New Paradigm in Split Manufacturing: Lock the FEOL, Unlock at the BEOL |
| title_fullStr | A New Paradigm in Split Manufacturing: Lock the FEOL, Unlock at the BEOL |
| title_full_unstemmed | A New Paradigm in Split Manufacturing: Lock the FEOL, Unlock at the BEOL |
| title_short | A New Paradigm in Split Manufacturing: Lock the FEOL, Unlock at the BEOL |
| title_sort | new paradigm in split manufacturing lock the feol unlock at the beol |
| topic | split manufacturing proximity attack logic locking |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2410-387X/6/2/22 |
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