Hardware-based Security for Virtual Trusted Platform Modules

Virtual Trusted Platform modules (TPMs) were proposed as a software-based alternative to the hardware-based TPMs to allow the use of their cryptographic functionalities in scenarios where multiple TPMs are required in a single platform, such as in virtualized environments. However, virtualizing TPMs, especially virutalizing the Platform Configuration Registers (PCRs), strikes against one of the core principles of Trusted Computing, namely the need for a hardware-based root of trust. In this paper we show how strength of hardware-based security can be gained in virtual PCRs by binding them to their corresponding hardware PCRs. We propose two approaches for such a binding. For this purpose, the first variant uses binary hash trees, whereas the other variant uses incremental hashing. In addition, we present an FPGA-based implementation of both variants and evaluate their performance

Tamper-Resistant Arithmetic for Public-Key Cryptography

Cryptographic hardware has found many uses in many ubiquitous and pervasive security devices with a small form factor, e.g. SIM cards, smart cards, electronic security tokens, and soon even RFIDs. With applications in banking, telecommunication, healthcare, e-commerce and entertainment, these devices use cryptography to provide security services like authentication, identification and confidentiality to the user. However, the widespread adoption of these devices into the mass market, and the lack of a physical security perimeter have increased the risk of theft, reverse engineering, and cloning. Despite the use of strong cryptographic algorithms, these devices often succumb to powerful side-channel attacks. These attacks provide a motivated third party with access to the inner workings of the device and therefore the opportunity to circumvent the protection of the cryptographic envelope. Apart from passive side-channel analysis, which has been the subject of intense research for over a decade, active tampering attacks like fault analysis have recently gained increased attention from the academic and industrial research community. In this dissertation we address the question of how to protect cryptographic devices against this kind of attacks. More specifically, we focus our attention on public key algorithms like elliptic curve cryptography and their underlying arithmetic structure. In our research we address challenges such as the cost of implementation, the level of protection, and the error model in an adversarial situation. The approaches that we investigated all apply concepts from coding theory, in particular the theory of cyclic codes. This seems intuitive, since both public key cryptography and cyclic codes share finite field arithmetic as a common foundation. The major contributions of our research are (a) a generalization of cyclic codes that allow embedding of finite fields into redundant rings under a ring homomorphism, (b) a new family of non-linear arithmetic residue codes with very high error detection probability, (c) a set of new low-cost arithmetic primitives for optimal extension field arithmetic based on robust codes, and (d) design techniques for tamper resilient finite state machines

High-Speed Area-Efficient Hardware Architecture for the Efficient Detection of Faults in a Bit-Parallel Multiplier Utilizing the Polynomial Basis of GF(2m)

The utilization of finite field multipliers is pervasive in contemporary digital systems, with hardware implementation for bit parallel operation often necessitating millions of logic gates. However, various digital design issues, whether natural or stemming from soft errors, can result in gate malfunction, ultimately leading to erroneous multiplier outputs. Thus, to prevent susceptibility to error, it is imperative to employ an effective finite field multiplier implementation that boasts a robust fault detection capability. This study proposes a novel fault detection scheme for a recent bit-parallel polynomial basis multiplier over GF(2m), intended to achieve optimal fault detection performance for finite field multipliers while simultaneously maintaining a low-complexity implementation, a favored attribute in resource-constrained applications like smart cards. The primary concept behind the proposed approach is centered on the implementation of a BCH decoder that utilizes re-encoding technique and FIBM algorithm in its first and second sub-modules, respectively. This approach serves to address hardware complexity concerns while also making use of Berlekamp-Rumsey-Solomon (BRS) algorithm and Chien search method in the third sub-module of the decoder to effectively locate errors with minimal delay. The results of our synthesis indicate that our proposed error detection and correction architecture for a 45-bit multiplier with 5-bit errors achieves a 37% and 49% reduction in critical path delay compared to existing designs. Furthermore, the hardware complexity associated with a 45-bit multiplicand that contains 5 errors is confined to a mere 80%, which is significantly lower than the most exceptional BCH-based fault recognition methodologies, including TMR, Hamming's single error correction, and LDPC-based procedures within the realm of finite field multiplication.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figures. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:2209.1338

Multiple bit error correcting architectures over finite fields

This thesis proposes techniques to mitigate multiple bit errors in GF arithmetic circuits. As GF arithmetic circuits such as multipliers constitute the complex and important functional unit of a crypto-processor, making them fault tolerant will improve the reliability of circuits that are employed in safety applications and the errors may cause catastrophe if not mitigated. Firstly, a thorough literature review has been carried out. The merits of efficient schemes are carefully analyzed to study the space for improvement in error correction, area and power consumption. Proposed error correction schemes include bit parallel ones using optimized BCH codes that are useful in applications where power and area are not prime concerns. The scheme is also extended to dynamically correcting scheme to reduce decoder delay. Other method that suits low power and area applications such as RFIDs and smart cards using cross parity codes is also proposed. The experimental evaluation shows that the proposed techniques can mitigate single and multiple bit errors with wider error coverage compared to existing methods with lesser area and power consumption. The proposed scheme is used to mask the errors appearing at the output of the circuit irrespective of their cause. This thesis also investigates the error mitigation schemes in emerging technologies (QCA, CNTFET) to compare area, power and delay with existing CMOS equivalent. Though the proposed novel multiple error correcting techniques can not ensure 100% error mitigation, inclusion of these techniques to actual design can improve the reliability of the circuits or increase the difficulty in hacking crypto-devices. Proposed schemes can also be extended to non GF digital circuits

Hardware for digitally controlled scanned probe microscopes

The design and implementation of a flexible and modular digital control and data acquisition system for scanned probe microscopes (SPMs) is presented. The measured performance of the system shows it to be capable of 14-bit data acquisition at a 100-kHz rate and a full 18-bit output resolution resulting in less than 0.02-Å rms position noise while maintaining a scan range in excess of 1 µm in both the X and Y dimensions. This level of performance achieves the goal of making the noise of the microscope control system an insignificant factor for most experiments. The adaptation of the system to various types of SPM experiments is discussed. Advances in audio electronics and digital signal processors have made the construction of such high performance systems possible at low cost

Virtual Runtime Application Partitions for Resource Management in Massively Parallel Architectures

This thesis presents a novel design paradigm, called Virtual Runtime Application Partitions (VRAP), to judiciously utilize the on-chip resources. As the dark silicon era approaches, where the power considerations will allow only a fraction chip to be powered on, judicious resource management will become a key consideration in future designs. Most of the works on resource management treat only the physical components (i.e. computation, communication, and memory blocks) as resources and manipulate the component to application mapping to optimize various parameters (e.g. energy efficiency). To further enhance the optimization potential, in addition to the physical resources we propose to manipulate abstract resources (i.e. voltage/frequency operating point, the fault-tolerance strength, the degree of parallelism, and the configuration architecture). The proposed framework (i.e. VRAP) encapsulates methods, algorithms, and hardware blocks to provide each application with the abstract resources tailored to its needs. To test the efficacy of this concept, we have developed three distinct self adaptive environments: (i) Private Operating Environment (POE), (ii) Private Reliability Environment (PRE), and (iii) Private Configuration Environment (PCE) that collectively ensure that each application meets its deadlines using minimal platform resources. In this work several novel architectural enhancements, algorithms and policies are presented to realize the virtual runtime application partitions efficiently. Considering the future design trends, we have chosen Coarse Grained Reconfigurable Architectures (CGRAs) and Network on Chips (NoCs) to test the feasibility of our approach. Specifically, we have chosen Dynamically Reconfigurable Resource Array (DRRA) and McNoC as the representative CGRA and NoC platforms. The proposed techniques are compared and evaluated using a variety of quantitative experiments. Synthesis and simulation results demonstrate VRAP significantly enhances the energy and power efficiency compared to state of the art.Siirretty Doriast

Public key cryptosystems : theory, application and implementation

The determination of an individual's right to privacy is mainly a nontechnical matter, but the pragmatics of providing it is the central concern of the cryptographer. This thesis has sought answers to some of the outstanding issues in cryptography. In particular, some of the theoretical, application and implementation problems associated with a Public Key Cryptosystem (PKC).The Trapdoor Knapsack (TK) PKC is capable of fast throughput, but suffers from serious disadvantages. In chapter two a more general approach to the TK-PKC is described, showing how the public key size can be significantly reduced. To overcome the security limitations a new trapdoor was described in chapter three. It is based on transformations between the radix and residue number systems.Chapter four considers how cryptography can best be applied to multi-addressed packets of information. We show how security or communication network structure can be used to advantage, then proposing a new broadcast cryptosystem, which is more generally applicable.Copyright is traditionally used to protect the publisher from the pirate. Chapter five shows how to protect information when in easily copyable digital format.Chapter six describes the potential and pitfalls of VLSI, followed in chapter seven by a model for comparing the cost and performance of VLSI architectures. Chapter eight deals with novel architectures for all the basic arithmetic operations. These architectures provide a basic vocabulary of low complexity VLSI arithmetic structures for a wide range of applications.The design of a VLSI device, the Advanced Cipher Processor (ACP), to implement the RSA algorithm is described in chapter nine. It's heart is the modular exponential unit, which is a synthesis of the architectures in chapter eight. The ACP is capable of a throughput of 50 000 bits per second