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Lock-in Thermography for the Localization of Security Hard Blocks on SoC Devices.

Localizing security-relevant hard blocks on modern System-on-Chips (SoCs) for physical attacks, such as sidechannel analysis and fault attacks, has become increasingly time-consuming due to ever-increasing chip-area and - complexity. While this development increases the effort and reverse engineering cost, it is not sufficient to withstand resolute attackers. This paper explores the application of camera-based lock-in thermography (LIT), a nondestructive testing method, for identifying and localizing security hard blocks on integrated circuits. We use a synchronous signal to periodically activate security-related functions in the firmware, which causes periodic temperature changes in the activated die areas that we detect and localize via an infra-red camera. Using this method, we demonstrate the precise detection and localization of security-related hard blocks at the die level on a modern SoC.

Lock-in Thermography for the Localization of Security Hard Blocks on SoC Devices.

ISTFA 2023

Authors: Michael Koegel, Sebastian Brand, Christian Grosse, Frank Altmann, Bodo Selmke, Kilian Zinnecker, Robert Hesselbarth, and Nisha Jacob Kabakci
Year/month: 2023/11
Booktitle: ISTFA 2023
Pages: 352-359
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Abstract

Localizing security-relevant hard blocks on modern System-on-Chips (SoCs) for physical attacks, such as sidechannel analysis and fault attacks, has become increasingly time-consuming due to ever-increasing chip-area and - complexity. While this development increases the effort and reverse engineering cost, it is not sufficient to withstand resolute attackers. This paper explores the application of camera-based lock-in thermography (LIT), a nondestructive testing method, for identifying and localizing security hard blocks on integrated circuits. We use a synchronous signal to periodically activate security-related functions in the firmware, which causes periodic temperature changes in the activated die areas that we detect and localize via an infra-red camera. Using this method, we demonstrate the precise detection and localization of security-related hard blocks at the die level on a modern SoC.

Bibtex:

@inproceedings {
author = { Michael Koegel and Sebastian Brand and Christian Grosse and Frank Altmann and Bodo Selmke and Kilian Zinnecker and Robert Hesselbarth and Nisha Jacob Kabakci},
title = { Lock-in Thermography for the Localization of Security Hard Blocks on SoC Devices. },
year = { 2023 },
month = { November },
booktitle = { ISTFA 2023 },
pages = { 352-359 },
url = { https://doi.org/10.31399/asm.cp.istfa2023p0352 },

}