Application of ICmetrics for Embedded System Security

Author

Xiaojun Zhai ; Appiah, Kofi ; Ehsan, S. ; Huosheng Hu ; Dongbing Gu ; McDonald-Maier, K. ; Cheung, Wah M. ; Howells, Gareth

Author_Institution

Sch. of Comput. Sci. & Electron. Eng., Univ. of Essex, Colchester, UK

fYear

2013

fDate

9-11 Sept. 2013

Firstpage

89

Lastpage

92

Abstract

Integrated Circuit Metrics (ICmetrics) technology is concerned with the extraction of measurable features of an embedded system, capable of uniquely identifying the system´s behaviour. Any changes in these identifiers (profiles) during consequent devices´ operation would signal about a possible safety or security breach within the electronic system. This paper explores the combination of program counter (PC) and Cycles per Instructions (CPI) of a processor core as a potential ICmetrics source for embedded system security. The use of this combination exhibits that while isolated PC values may not always generate a stable identifier (profile) for a device that would distinguish the device from the rest in a considered set, the PC and CPI sequences and frequencies in the execution flow may serve as suitable ICmetrics features.

Keywords

cryptography; embedded systems; reduced instruction set computing; CPI sequences; ICmetrics technology; PC values; cycles per instructions; device operation; electronic system; embedded system security; execution flow; integrated circuit metrics technology; measurable feature extraction; processor core; program counter; reduced instruction set computing; stable identifier profile; system behaviour identification; Central Processing Unit; Embedded systems; Encryption; Feature extraction; Hardware; Object recognition; Cycles per Instructions; ICmetrics; embedded system security; program counter;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Emerging Security Technologies (EST), 2013 Fourth International Conference on

Conference_Location

Cambridge

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/EST.2013.21

Filename

6680194