HWS

Hardware Security (HWS)

This is a grad-level introduction to hardware security (HWS). The main target audience is grad students from CS and ECE, e.g., CS grads with some knowledge about security in general but looking to expand their security knowledge to hardware, and ECE grads with knowledge of digital circuits and VLSI but wondering what hardware security looks like. After taking this course, students should have a better understanding of the difference and connection between software security and hardware security, and major topics in hardware security, including both research and applied techniques. Undergrads are welcome to audit this course with permission from the instructor.

Prerequisite (ideal but not mandatory):

  • General knowledge of computer security
  • General knowledge of digital circuits
  • General knowledge of computer architecture

Syllabus:

Intro
Pre-silicon:

  • Digital Circuits
  • Hardware Description Language (Verilog)
  • Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA)
  • Physical Unclonable Function (PUF)
  • True Random Number Generator (TRNG)
  • Hardware Metering
  • Hardware Watermarking
  • Hardware Trojan
  • Capability Hardware Enhanced RISC Instructions (CHERI, Tentative)

Post-silicon:

  • Physical Attacks
  • Side-Channel Analysis
  • Embedded Systems Security
    • UART
    • SPI
    • I2C
    • JTAG
  • Applied Hardware Pentesting
  • Power Analysis
  • Fault Injection
  • Rowhammer
  • Software Defined Radio (Tentative)

Lab Assignments:

  1. Hacking a WiFi router to dump the firmware
  2. Building a minimum Trusted Execution Environment (TEE) using a RISC-V softcore
  3. Power analysis using ChipWhispererNano
  4. Fault injection on TRNG (Tentative)
  5. Rowhammer (Tentative)