Beware Your Standard Cells! on Their Role in Static Power Side-Channel Attacks

Jitendra Bhandari, Likhitha Mankali, Mohammed Nabeel, Ozgur Sinanoglu, Ramesh Karri, Johann Knechtel

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Static or leakage power, which is especially prominent in advanced technology nodes, enables so-called static power side-channel attacks (S-PSCAs). While countermeasures exist, they often incur considerable overheads. Besides, hardware Trojans represent another threat. Although the interplay between static power, down-scaling of technology nodes, and the vulnerability to S-PSCA is already established, an important detail was not covered yet: the role of the components at the heart of this sensitive interplay, the standard cells. Here, we study this intricate relationship for two commercial 28 and 65 nm technologies, using a commercial-grade integrated circuit design setup, and under realistic power consumption, performance, and area (PPA) objectives. Specifically, we study how threshold-voltage (VT) tuning of standard cells impacts the resilience of representative AES and PRESENT cipher hardware, including versions with established countermeasures. Our proposed CAD framework enables a security-versus-PPA-aware design-space exploration. Contrary to the belief that high-performance designs are generally more vulnerable to S-PSCA, we find that timing constraints and the distribution of different VT cells are more pivotal factors. Furthermore, we discover that attackers can deploy highly effective and stealthy S-PSCA-based Trojans, all without any gate overheads or any timing violations.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)4439-4452
Number of pages14
JournalIEEE Transactions on Computer-Aided Design of Integrated Circuits and Systems
Volume43
Issue number12
DOIs
StatePublished - 2024

Keywords

  • CAD
  • hardware security

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Software
  • Computer Graphics and Computer-Aided Design
  • Electrical and Electronic Engineering

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Beware Your Standard Cells! on Their Role in Static Power Side-Channel Attacks'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this