An IoT Endpoint System-on-Chip for Secure and Energy-Efficient Near-Sensor Analytics

Near-sensor data analytics is a promising direction for IoT endpoints, as it minimizes energy spent on communication and reduces network load - but it also poses security concerns, as valuable data is stored or sent over the network at various stages of the analytics pipeline. Using encryption to protect sensitive data at the boundary of the on-chip analytics engine is a way to address data security issues. To cope with the combined workload of analytics and encryption in a tight power envelope, we propose Fulmine, a System-on-Chip based on a tightly-coupled multi-core cluster augmented with specialized blocks for compute-intensive data processing and encryption functions, supporting software programmability for regular computing tasks. The Fulmine SoC, fabricated in 65nm technology, consumes less than 20mW on average at 0.8V achieving an efficiency of up to 70pJ/B in encryption, 50pJ/px in convolution, or up to 25MIPS/mW in software. As a strong argument for real-life flexible application of our platform, we show experimental results for three secure analytics use cases: secure autonomous aerial surveillance with a state-of-the-art deep CNN consuming 3.16pJ per equivalent RISC op; local CNN-based face detection with secured remote recognition in 5.74pJ/op; and seizure detection with encrypted data collection from EEG within 12.7pJ/op.Comment: 15 pages, 12 figures, accepted for publication to the IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems - I: Regular Paper

Design and analysis of an FPGA-based, multi-processor HW-SW system for SCC applications

The last 30 years have seen an increase in the complexity of embedded systems from a collection of simple circuits to systems consisting of multiple processors managing a wide variety of devices. This ever increasing complexity frequently requires that high assurance, fail-safe and secure design techniques be applied to protect against possible failures and breaches. To facilitate the implementation of these embedded systems in an efficient way, the FPGA industry recently created new families of devices. New features added to these devices include anti-tamper monitoring, bit stream encryption, and optimized routing architectures for physical and functional logic partition isolation. These devices have high capacities and are capable of implementing processors using their reprogrammable logic structures. This allows for an unprecedented level of hardware and software interaction within a single FPGA chip. High assurance and fail-safe systems can now be implemented within the reconfigurable hardware fabric of an FPGA, enabling these systems to maintain flexibility and achieve high performance while providing a high level of data security. The objective of this thesis was to design and analyze an FPGA-based system containing two isolated, softcore Nios processors that share data through two crypto-engines. FPGA-based single-chip cryptographic (SCC) techniques were employed to ensure proper component isolation when the design is placed on a device supporting the appropriate security primitives. Each crypto-engine is an implementation of the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES), operating in Galois/Counter Mode (GCM) for both encryption and authentication. The features of the microprocessors and architectures of the AES crypto-engines were varied with the goal of determining combinations which best target high performance, minimal hardware usage, or a combination of the two

Cryptoraptor : high throughput reconfigurable cryptographic processor for symmetric key encryption and cryptographic hash functions

textIn cryptographic processor design, the selection of functional primitives and connection structures between these primitives are extremely crucial to maximize throughput and flexibility. Hence, detailed analysis on the specifications and requirements of existing crypto-systems plays a crucial role in cryptographic processor design. This thesis provides the most comprehensive literature review that we are aware of on the widest range of existing cryptographic algorithms, their specifications, requirements, and hardware structures. In the light of this analysis, it also describes a high performance, low power, and highly flexible cryptographic processor, Cryptoraptor, that is designed to support both today's and tomorrow's encryption standards. To the best of our knowledge, the proposed cryptographic processor supports the widest range of cryptographic algorithms compared to other solutions in the literature and is the only crypto-specific processor targeting the future standards as well. Unlike previous work, we aim for maximum throughput for all known encryption standards, and to support future standards as well. Our 1GHz design achieves a peak throughput of 128Gbps for AES-128 which is competitive with ASIC designs and has 25X and 160X higher throughput per area than CPU and GPU solutions, respectively.Electrical and Computer Engineerin

Securing Critical Infrastructures

1noL'abstract è presente nell'allegato / the abstract is in the attachmentopen677. INGEGNERIA INFORMATInoopenCarelli, Albert

Crypto-processeur architecture, programmation et évaluation de la sécurité

Les architectures des processeurs et coprocesseurs cryptographiques se montrent fréquemment vulnérables aux différents types d attaques ; en particulier, celles qui ciblent une révélation des clés chiffrées. Il est bien connu qu une manipulation des clés confidentielles comme des données standards par un processeur peut être considérée comme une menace. Ceci a lieu par exemple lors d un changement du code logiciel (malintentionné ou involontaire) qui peut provoquer que la clé confidentielle sorte en clair de la zone sécurisée. En conséquence, la sécurité de tout le système serait irréparablement menacée. L objectif que nous nous sommes fixé dans le travail présenté, était la recherche d architectures matérielles reconfigurables qui peuvent fournir une sécurité élevée des clés confidentielles pendant leur génération, leur enregistrement et leur échanges en implantant des modes cryptographiques de clés symétriques et des protocoles. La première partie de ce travail est destinée à introduire les connaissances de base de la cryptographie appliquée ainsi que de l électronique pour assurer une bonne compréhension des chapitres suivants. Deuxièmement, nous présentons un état de l art des menaces sur la confidentialité des clés secrètes dans le cas où ces dernières sont stockées et traitées dans un système embarqué. Pour lutter contre les menaces mentionnées, nous proposons alors de nouvelles règles au niveau du design de l architecture qui peuvent augmenter la résistance des processeurs et coprocesseurs cryptographiques contre les attaques logicielles. Ces règles prévoient une séparation des registres dédiés à l enregistrement de clés et ceux dédiés à l enregistrement de données : nous proposons de diviser le système en zones : de données, du chiffreur et des clés et à isoler ces zones les unes des autres au niveau du protocole, du système, de l architecture et au niveau physique. Ensuite, nous présentons un nouveau crypto-processeur intitulé HCrypt, qui intègre ces règles de séparation et qui assure ainsi une gestion sécurisée des clés. Mises à part les instructions relatives à la gestion sécurisée de clés, quelques instructions supplémentaires sont dédiées à une réalisation simple des modes de chiffrement et des protocoles cryptographiques. Dans les chapitres suivants, nous explicitons le fait que les règles de séparation suggérées, peuvent également être étendues à l architecture d un processeur généraliste et coprocesseur. Nous proposons ainsi un crypto-coprocesseur sécurisé qui est en mesure d être utilisé en relation avec d autres processeurs généralistes. Afin de démontrer sa flexibilité, le crypto-coprocesseur est interconnecté avec les processeurs soft-cores de NIOS II, de MicroBlaze et de Cortex M1. Par la suite, la résistance du crypto-processeur par rapport aux attaques DPA est testée. Sur la base de ces analyses, l architecture du processeur HCrypt est modifiée afin de simplifier sa protection contre les attaques par canaux cachés (SCA) et les attaques par injection de fautes (FIA). Nous expliquons aussi le fait qu une réorganisation des blocs au niveau macroarchitecture du processeur HCrypt, augmente la résistance du nouveau processeur HCrypt2 par rapport aux attaques de type DPA et FIA. Nous étudions ensuite les possibilités pour pouvoir reconfigurer dynamiquement les parties sélectionnées de l architecture du processeur crypto-coprocesseur. La reconfiguration dynamique peut être très utile lorsque l algorithme de chiffrement ou ses implantations doivent être changés en raison de l apparition d une vulnérabilité Finalement, la dernière partie de ces travaux de thèse, est destinée à l exécution des tests de fonctionnalité et des optimisations stricts des deux versions du cryptoprocesseur HCryptArchitectures of cryptographic processors and coprocessors are often vulnerable to different kinds of attacks, especially those targeting the disclosure of encryption keys. It is well known that manipulating confidential keys by the processor as ordinary data can represent a threat: a change in the program code (malicious or unintentional) can cause the unencrypted confidential key to leave the security area. This way, the security of the whole system would be irrecoverably compromised. The aim of our work was to search for flexible and reconfigurable hardware architectures, which can provide high security of confidential keys during their generation, storage and exchange while implementing common symmetric key cryptographic modes and protocols. In the first part of the manuscript, we introduce the bases of applied cryptography and of reconfigurable computing that are necessary for better understanding of the work. Second, we present threats to security of confidential keys when stored and processed within an embedded system. To counteract these threats, novel design rules increasing robustness of cryptographic processors and coprocessors against software attacks are presented. The rules suggest separating registers dedicated to key storage from those dedicated to data storage: we propose to partition the system into the data, cipher and key zone and to isolate the zones from each other at protocol, system, architectural and physical levels. Next, we present a novel HCrypt crypto-processor complying with the separation rules and thus ensuring secure key management. Besides instructions dedicated to secure key management, some additional instructions are dedicated to easy realization of block cipher modes and cryptographic protocols in general. In the next part of the manuscript, we show that the proposed separation principles can be extended also to a processor-coprocessor architecture. We propose a secure crypto-coprocessor, which can be used in conjunction with any general-purpose processor. To demonstrate its flexibility, the crypto-coprocessor is interconnected with the NIOS II, MicroBlaze and Cortex M1 soft-core processors. In the following part of the work, we examine the resistance of the HCrypt cryptoprocessor to differential power analysis (DPA) attacks. Following this analysis, we modify the architecture of the HCrypt processor in order to simplify its protection against side channel attacks (SCA) and fault injection attacks (FIA). We show that by rearranging blocks of the HCrypt processor at macroarchitecture level, the new HCrypt2 processor becomes natively more robust to DPA and FIA. Next, we study possibilities of dynamically reconfiguring selected parts of the processor - crypto-coprocessor architecture. The dynamic reconfiguration feature can be very useful when the cipher algorithm or its implementation must be changed in response to appearance of some vulnerability. Finally, the last part of the manuscript is dedicated to thorough testing and optimizations of both versions of the HCrypt crypto-processor. Architectures of crypto-processors and crypto-coprocessors are often vulnerable to software attacks targeting the disclosure of encryption keys. The thesis introduces separation rules enabling crypto-processor/coprocessors to support secure key management. Separation rules are implemented on novel HCrypt crypto-processor resistant to software attacks targetting the disclosure of encryption keysST ETIENNE-Bib. électronique (422189901) / SudocSudocFranceF

Dynamic partial reconfiguration management for high performance and reliability in FPGAs

Modern Field-Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) are no longer used to implement small “glue logic” circuitries. The high-density of reconfigurable logic resources in today’s FPGAs enable the implementation of large systems in a single chip. FPGAs are highly flexible devices; their functionality can be altered by simply loading a new binary file in their configuration memory. While the flexibility of FPGAs is comparable to General-Purpose Processors (GPPs), in the sense that different functions can be performed using the same hardware, the performance gain that can be achieved using FPGAs can be orders of magnitudes higher as FPGAs offer the ability for customisation of parallel computational architectures. Dynamic Partial Reconfiguration (DPR) allows for changing the functionality of certain blocks on the chip while the rest of the FPGA is operational. DPR has sparked the interest of researchers to explore new computational platforms where computational tasks are off-loaded from a main CPU to be executed using dedicated reconfigurable hardware accelerators configured on demand at run-time. By having a battery of custom accelerators which can be swapped in and out of the FPGA at runtime, a higher computational density can be achieved compared to static systems where the accelerators are bound to fixed locations within the chip. Furthermore, the ability of relocating these accelerators across several locations on the chip allows for the implementation of adaptive systems which can mitigate emerging faults in the FPGA chip when operating in harsh environments. By porting the appropriate fault mitigation techniques in such computational platforms, the advantages of FPGAs can be harnessed in different applications in space and military electronics where FPGAs are usually seen as unreliable devices due to their sensitivity to radiation and extreme environmental conditions. In light of the above, this thesis investigates the deployment of DPR as: 1) a method for enhancing performance by efficient exploitation of the FPGA resources, and 2) a method for enhancing the reliability of systems intended to operate in harsh environments. Achieving optimal performance in such systems requires an efficient internal configuration management system to manage the reconfiguration and execution of the reconfigurable modules in the FPGA. In addition, the system needs to support “fault-resilience” features by integrating parameterisable fault detection and recovery capabilities to meet the reliability standard of fault-tolerant applications. This thesis addresses all the design and implementation aspects of an Internal Configuration Manger (ICM) which supports a novel bitstream relocation model to enable the placement of relocatable accelerators across several locations on the FPGA chip. In addition to supporting all the configuration capabilities required to implement a Reconfigurable Operating System (ROS), the proposed ICM also supports the novel multiple-clone configuration technique which allows for cloning several instances of the same hardware accelerator at the same time resulting in much shorter configuration time compared to traditional configuration techniques. A faulttolerant (FT) version of the proposed ICM which supports a comprehensive faultrecovery scheme is also introduced in this thesis. The proposed FT-ICM is designed with a much smaller area footprint compared to Triple Modular Redundancy (TMR) hardening techniques while keeping a comparable level of fault-resilience. The capabilities of the proposed ICM system are demonstrated with two novel applications. The first application demonstrates a proof-of-concept reliable FPGA server solution used for executing encryption/decryption queries. The proposed server deploys bitstream relocation and modular redundancy to mitigate both permanent and transient faults in the device. It also deploys a novel Built-In Self- Test (BIST) diagnosis scheme, specifically designed to detect emerging permanent faults in the system at run-time. The second application is a data mining application where DPR is used to increase the computational density of a system used to implement the Frequent Itemset Mining (FIM) problem