Pith. sign in

REVIEW

Not yet reviewed by Pith; the record is open.

This paper has not been read by Pith yet. Machine review is queued; the pith claim, tier, and objections will appear here once it completes.

SPECIMEN: schema-true, not a live event

T0 review · schema-true

One-sentence machine reading of the paper's core claim.

pith:XXXXXXXX · record.json · timestamp

arxiv 2502.01240 v2 pith:I7NIIQLI submitted 2025-02-03 cs.CR cs.AR

The Impact of Logic Locking on Confidentiality: An Automated Evaluation

classification cs.CR cs.AR
keywords lockinglogicconfidentialitydataencryptioncryptographicduringimpact
verification ladder T0 review T1 audit T2 compute T3 formal T4 reserved
0 comments
read the original abstract

Logic locking secures hardware designs in untrusted foundries by incorporating key-driven gates to obscure the original blueprint. While this method safeguards the integrated circuit from malicious alterations during fabrication, its influence on data confidentiality during runtime has been ignored. In this study, we employ path sensitization to formally examine the impact of logic locking on confidentiality. By applying three representative logic locking mechanisms on open-source cryptographic benchmarks, we utilize an automatic test pattern generation framework to evaluate the effect of locking on cryptographic encryption keys and sensitive data signals. Our analysis reveals that logic locking can inadvertently cause sensitive data leakage when incorrect logic locking keys are used. We show that a single malicious logic locking key can expose over 70% of an encryption key. If an adversary gains control over other inputs, the entire encryption key can be compromised. This research uncovers a significant security vulnerability in logic locking and emphasizes the need for comprehensive security assessments that extend beyond key-recovery attacks.

discussion (0)

Sign in with ORCID, Apple, or X to comment. Anyone can read and Pith papers without signing in.