Securing FPGA SoC configurations independent of their manufacturers

Nisha Jacob, Jakob Wittmann, Johann Heyszl, Robert Hesselbarth, Florian Wilde, Michael Pehl, Georg Sigl, Kai Fischer

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

12 Scopus citations

Abstract

System-on-Chips which include FPGAs are important platforms for critical applications since they provide significant software performance through multi-core CPUs as well as high versatility through integrated FPGAs. Those integrated FP-GAs allow to update the programmable hardware functionality, e.g. to include new communication interfaces or to update cryptographic accelerators during the life-time of devices. Updating software as well as hardware configuration is required for critical applications such as e.g. industrial control devices or vehicles with long life-times. Such updates must be authenticated and possibly encrypted. One way to achieve this is to rely on static FPGA manufacturer-provided cryptography and respective master keys. However, in this contribution, we show how to retrofit Xilinx Zynq FPGAs with an alternative cryptographic accelerator and how to establish device-individual keys using Physical Unclonable Function (PUF) technology. These two key aspects reduce the required trust in manufacturer-provided security features while increasing the security by binding configurations to a specific device.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationProceedings - 30th IEEE International System on Chip Conference, SOCC 2017
EditorsJurgen Becker, Ramalingam Sridhar, Hai Li, Ulf Schlichtmann, Massimo Alioto
PublisherIEEE Computer Society
Pages114-119
Number of pages6
ISBN (Electronic)9781538640333
DOIs
StatePublished - 18 Dec 2017
Event30th IEEE International System on Chip Conference, SOCC 2017 - Munich, Germany
Duration: 5 Sep 20178 Sep 2017

Publication series

NameInternational System on Chip Conference
Volume2017-September
ISSN (Print)2164-1676
ISSN (Electronic)2164-1706

Conference

Conference30th IEEE International System on Chip Conference, SOCC 2017
Country/TerritoryGermany
CityMunich
Period5/09/178/09/17

Keywords

  • Cryptographic engine
  • FPGA
  • PUF
  • Partial reconfiguration
  • Secure boot
  • SoC
  • Zynq

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