Security Verification for Embedded Hardware Designs

Aug. 7, 2023
At the core of every secure product is robust hardware security, which must also address the threats created by hardware vulnerabilities.

Check out our Design Automation Conference 2023 coverage. This video is also part of the TechXchanges: Cybersecurity and Addressing Chip Verification Challenges.

Cycuity provides a design solution that uses information flow tracking to find bugs or security weaknesses as security assets flow in chip design in IP, subsystem, and block levels. Offering scalable, automated hardware security verification, it can detect security vulnerabilities during configuration and usage with Radix.

The platform provides a repeatable process for validating security properties and the absence of unexpected security flaws across the design lifecycle. When added to your existing verification environment, it covers from block level to full SoC, including software.

Radix systematically detects known and yet-to-be-discovered security vulnerabilities, including those using standards like MITRE Common Weakness Enumeration (CWE). It implements an asset-based methodology using a comprehensive security verification methodology centered around security assets.

Security rules are validated in any existing verification environment, enabling the automation of rigorous security verification throughout development, which can be reused across the design cycle and even across multiple design projects. Information flow analysis tracks and traces all security assets independently of their values,  across the chip and through logical and sequential transformations.

Radix combines symbolic analysis with simulation and emulation, addressing the limitations of functional methods such as formal verification and SVA- and UVM-based simulation. Real-time analysis capabilities highlight the flow of security assets to understand and identify the root cause of uncovered vulnerabilities, with insight into flow hierarchy, data, and control values, as well as special features for inspecting memories.

Related links:

About the Author

Alix Paultre | Editor-at-Large, Electronic Design

An Army veteran, Alix Paultre was a signals intelligence soldier on the East/West German border in the early ‘80s, and eventually wound up helping launch and run a publication on consumer electronics for the US military stationed in Europe. Alix first began in this industry in 1998 at Electronic Products magazine, and since then has worked for a variety of publications in the embedded electronic engineering space. Alix currently lives in Wiesbaden, Germany.

Also check out his YouTube watch-collecting channel, Talking Timepieces

Sponsored Recommendations

Comments

To join the conversation, and become an exclusive member of Electronic Design, create an account today!