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Secure and efficient sharing of on-chip resources

Åhlund, Joel LU ; Törmänen, Markus LU orcid and Larsson, Erik LU orcid (2025)
Abstract
Semiconductors use on-chip components, referred to as instruments, for test, debugging, firmware programming, configuration and other important functions. The instruments are needed to ensure proper device operation, however, they may be exploited by an adversary in an attack. With many different actors involved in semiconductor development and manufacturing, it becomes important to restrict access to instruments which should not be available for all users.

In this paper, we propose an authenticated instrument sharing scheme, which makes instruments available for some users while remaining hidden and
inaccessible for others. Also protecting users against inside threats, like hardware trojans, in third party instruments in the... (More)
Semiconductors use on-chip components, referred to as instruments, for test, debugging, firmware programming, configuration and other important functions. The instruments are needed to ensure proper device operation, however, they may be exploited by an adversary in an attack. With many different actors involved in semiconductor development and manufacturing, it becomes important to restrict access to instruments which should not be available for all users.

In this paper, we propose an authenticated instrument sharing scheme, which makes instruments available for some users while remaining hidden and
inaccessible for others. Also protecting users against inside threats, like hardware trojans, in third party instruments in the device. The scheme is implemented for instrument access within an IEEE Std. 1687 (IJTAG) network, which is a frequently used standard for on-chip instrument access and integration. When deployed, our solution is (1) secure, as users are only able to access instruments they are authorized to use, other instruments remain hidden, and (2) efficient, as all of the users instruments will be directly accessible through the IJTAG network, after a one-step authentication process, with no additional access time overhead. We demonstrate our solution with a use case. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
; and
organization
publishing date
type
Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding
publication status
in press
subject
host publication
International test Conference (ITC) 2025
pages
4 pages
publisher
IEEE - Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
project
Trustable systems with components from untrustable supply-chains
Resilient Trust
Distributed Digital Beamforming for cmWave and mmWave 6G Integrated Sensing and Communication
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
4ef5b959-4441-431d-b0fb-03dddd7da0c0
date added to LUP
2025-06-26 10:40:54
date last changed
2025-08-01 10:39:42
@inproceedings{4ef5b959-4441-431d-b0fb-03dddd7da0c0,
  abstract     = {{Semiconductors use on-chip components, referred to as instruments, for test, debugging, firmware programming, configuration and other important functions. The instruments are needed to ensure proper device operation, however, they may be exploited by an adversary in an attack. With many different actors involved in semiconductor development and manufacturing, it becomes important to restrict access to instruments which should not be available for all users.<br/><br/>In this paper, we propose an authenticated instrument sharing scheme, which makes instruments available for some users while remaining hidden and <br/>inaccessible for others. Also protecting users against inside threats, like hardware trojans, in third party instruments in the device. The scheme is implemented for instrument access within an IEEE Std. 1687 (IJTAG) network, which is a frequently used standard for on-chip instrument access and integration. When deployed, our solution is (1) secure, as users are only able to access instruments they are authorized to use, other instruments remain hidden, and (2) efficient, as all of the users instruments will be directly accessible through the IJTAG network, after a one-step authentication process, with no additional access time overhead. We demonstrate our solution with a use case.}},
  author       = {{Åhlund, Joel and Törmänen, Markus and Larsson, Erik}},
  booktitle    = {{International test Conference (ITC) 2025}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  publisher    = {{IEEE - Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.}},
  title        = {{Secure and efficient sharing of on-chip resources}},
  year         = {{2025}},
}