Randomization Based Probabilistic Approach to Detect Trojan Circuits

Abstract

In this paper, we propose a randomization based technique to verify whether a manufactured chip conforms to its design or is infected by any trojan circuit. A trojan circuit can be inserted into the design or fabrication mask by a malicious manufacturer such that it monitors for a specific rare trigger condition, and then it produces a payload error in the circuit which alters the functionality of the circuit often causing a catastrophic crash of the system where the chip was being used. Since trojans are activated by rare input patterns, they are stealthy by nature and are difficult to detect through conventional techniques of functional testing. In this paper, we propose a novel randomized approach to probabilistically compare the functionality of the implemented circuit with the design of the circuit. Using hypothesis testing, we provide quantitative guarantees when our algorithm reports that there is no trojan in the implemented circuit. This allows us to trade runtime for accuracy. The technique is sound, that is, it reports presence of a trojan only if the implemented circuit is actually infected. If our algorithm finds that the implemented circuit is infected with a trojan, it also reports a fingerprint input pattern to distinguish the implemented circuit from the design. We illustrate the effectiveness of our technique on a set of infected and benign combinational circuits.

A Survey of Hardware Trojan Taxonomy and Detection

“…For example, Jha and Jha presented a randomization-based probabilistic approach to detect Trojans. 18 They showed that it's possible to construct a unique probabilistic signature of a circuit on the basis of a specific probability for patterns applied to its inputs. They apply input patterns based on the specific probability to IUA and compare its outputs with the original circuit.…”

Hardware Trojan Horses in Cryptographic IP Cores

“…The testing phase detection methods attempt to enhance traditional IC testing, or use side-channel analysis. For logic testing, Jha and Jha present a randomisation-based technique which probabilistically compares the functionality of the design of the circuit with the implemented circuit [19]. Chakraborty et al suggest to test rare occurrences on an IC rather than testing for correctness [12].…”

New design strategy for improving hardware Trojan detection and reducing Trojan activation time

“…A randomization based probabilistic approach to detect Trojan is presented in [14]. The authors show that it is possible to construct a unique probabilistic signature of a circuit using specific probability on its inputs.…”