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Utah State University

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

Computer security

Publication Year

Articles 1 - 3 of 3

Full-Text Articles in Engineering

Titan: Uncovering The Paradigm Shift In Security Vulnerability At Near-Threshold Computing, Prabal Basu, Pramesh Pandey, Aatreyi Bal, Chidhambaranathan Rajamanikkam, Koushik Chakraborty, Sanghamitra Roy Oct 2020

Titan: Uncovering The Paradigm Shift In Security Vulnerability At Near-Threshold Computing, Prabal Basu, Pramesh Pandey, Aatreyi Bal, Chidhambaranathan Rajamanikkam, Koushik Chakraborty, Sanghamitra Roy

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

In this paper, we investigate the emerging security threats at Near-Threshold Computing (NTC) that are poised to jeopardize the trustworthy operation of future low-power electronic devices. A substantial research effort over the last decade has bolstered energy efficient operation in low-power computing. However, innovation in low-power security has received only marginal attention, thwarting a ubiquitous adoption of critical Internet of Things applications, such as wearable gadgets. Using a cross-layer methodology, we demonstrate that the timing fault vulnerability of a circuit rapidly increases as the operating conditions of the transistor devices shift from super-threshold to near-threshold values. Exploiting this vulnerability, we …


Fifa: Exploring A Focally Induced Fault Attack Strategy In Near-Threshold Computing, Prabal Basu, Chidhambaranathan Rajamanikkam, Aatreyi Bal, Pramesh Pandey, Trevor Carter, Koushik Chakraborty, Sanghamitra Roy Dec 2017

Fifa: Exploring A Focally Induced Fault Attack Strategy In Near-Threshold Computing, Prabal Basu, Chidhambaranathan Rajamanikkam, Aatreyi Bal, Pramesh Pandey, Trevor Carter, Koushik Chakraborty, Sanghamitra Roy

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

In this letter, we explore the emerging security threats of near-threshold computing (NTC). Researchers have shown that the delay sensitivity of a circuit to supply voltage variation tremendously increases, as the circuit's operating conditions shift from traditional super-threshold values to NTC values. As a result, NTC systems become extremely vulnerable to timing fault attacks, jeopardizing trustworthy computing. Inspired by the operation of a polymorphic virus, we propose a novel threat model for NTC, referred to as a focally induced fault attack (FIFA). FIFA employs a machine learning framework to ascertain the circuit vulnerabilities and generates targeted software modules to cause …


Fort-Nocs: Mitigating The Threat Of A Compromised Noc, Dean Michael Ancajas, Koushik Chakraborty, Sanghamitra Roy Jun 2014

Fort-Nocs: Mitigating The Threat Of A Compromised Noc, Dean Michael Ancajas, Koushik Chakraborty, Sanghamitra Roy

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

In this paper, we uncover a novel and imminent threat to an emerging computing paradigm: MPSoCs built with 3rd party IP NoCs. We demonstrate that a compromised NoC (C-NoC) can enable a range of security attacks with an accomplice software component. To counteract these threats, we propose Fort-NoCs, a series of techniques that work together to provide protection from a C-NoC in an MPSoC. Fort-NoCs's foolproof protection disables covert backdoor activation, and reduces the chance of a successful side-channel attack by "clouding" the information obtained by an attacker. Compared to recently proposed techniques, Fort-NoCs offers a substantially better protection with …