Determining Confidence in FPGA Bitstream Reverse Engineering Results | IEEE Conference Publication | IEEE Xplore

Determining Confidence in FPGA Bitstream Reverse Engineering Results


Abstract:

Reverse engineering (RE) is a widespread practice within engineering, and it is particularly relevant for discovering maliciousfunctionality in digital hardware component...Show More

Abstract:

Reverse engineering (RE) is a widespread practice within engineering, and it is particularly relevant for discovering maliciousfunctionality in digital hardware components. In this paper, we discuss bitstream or firmware RE for field programable gate arrays (FPGAs). A bitstream establishes the configuration of the FPGA device fabric. Complete knowledge of both the physical device fabric and a specific bitstream should be sufficient to determine the complete configuration of the programmed FPGA. However, a significant challenge to bitstream RE arises because information about the FPGA fabric and interpretation of the bitstream is typically incomplete. The uncertainties limit the confidence in the correctness of any configuration determined through the RE process. This paper identifies representative sources of uncertainty in bitstream RE of FPGA devices.
Date of Conference: 28-31 August 2023
Date Added to IEEE Xplore: 26 December 2023
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Conference Location: Dayton, OH, USA

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