FEBRUARY 2024 | Md Moshiur Rahman, Member, IEEE, and Swarup Bhunia, Senior Member, IEEE
The article introduces a practical state-space obfuscation algorithm and an associated automation tool, ProtectIP, designed to protect hardware intellectual property (IP) from reverse engineering (RE), piracy, and extraction of design secrets. The algorithm addresses the limitations of existing obfuscation techniques by:
1. **Scalability**: It can handle large commercial-scale designs without requiring state space enumeration.
2. **Integration**: It integrates seamlessly with existing electronic design automation (EDA) tool flows.
3. **Security Against Emergent Attacks**: It effectively protects against structural analysis-based attacks.
4. **Efficient Trade-off**: It achieves a balance between security and design overhead.
The key contributions of the article include:
- **State-Space Obfuscation Methodology**: The algorithm increases the reachable state space of the finite-state machine (FSM) exponentially, making it computationally infeasible for attackers to reverse engineer the FSM.
- **Automation and Integration**: ProtectIP is implemented as a CAD tool and integrated into commercial EDA flows, providing a comprehensive solution for hardware IP protection.
- **Security Metrics**: Three security metrics are proposed to quantify the level of improved RE complexity, demonstrating robustness against structural analysis attacks.
The article also discusses the background of hardware obfuscation, existing attacks and defenses, and the challenges in state-space enumeration. It outlines the methodology for increasing the reachable state space, addressing scalability issues, and transforming combinational logic. The article concludes with a detailed description of the ProtectIP tool, its integration into EDA flows, and the steps involved in the obfuscation process.The article introduces a practical state-space obfuscation algorithm and an associated automation tool, ProtectIP, designed to protect hardware intellectual property (IP) from reverse engineering (RE), piracy, and extraction of design secrets. The algorithm addresses the limitations of existing obfuscation techniques by:
1. **Scalability**: It can handle large commercial-scale designs without requiring state space enumeration.
2. **Integration**: It integrates seamlessly with existing electronic design automation (EDA) tool flows.
3. **Security Against Emergent Attacks**: It effectively protects against structural analysis-based attacks.
4. **Efficient Trade-off**: It achieves a balance between security and design overhead.
The key contributions of the article include:
- **State-Space Obfuscation Methodology**: The algorithm increases the reachable state space of the finite-state machine (FSM) exponentially, making it computationally infeasible for attackers to reverse engineer the FSM.
- **Automation and Integration**: ProtectIP is implemented as a CAD tool and integrated into commercial EDA flows, providing a comprehensive solution for hardware IP protection.
- **Security Metrics**: Three security metrics are proposed to quantify the level of improved RE complexity, demonstrating robustness against structural analysis attacks.
The article also discusses the background of hardware obfuscation, existing attacks and defenses, and the challenges in state-space enumeration. It outlines the methodology for increasing the reachable state space, addressing scalability issues, and transforming combinational logic. The article concludes with a detailed description of the ProtectIP tool, its integration into EDA flows, and the steps involved in the obfuscation process.