Using Static Analysis for Enhancing HLS Security

Luca Collini; Joey Ah-kiow; Christian Pilato; Ramesh Karri; Benjamin Tan

doi:10.1109/LES.2023.3329417

Using Static Analysis for Enhancing HLS Security

Luca Collini, Joey Ah-kiow, Christian Pilato, Ramesh Karri, Benjamin Tan

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

Due to the increasing complexity of modern integrated circuits, High-Level Synthesis (HLS) is becoming a key technology in hardware design. HLS uses optimizations to assist during design space exploration. However, some of them can introduce security weaknesses. We propose an approach that leverages static analysis to identify a class of weaknesses in HLS-generated code. We show that some of these weaknesses can be corrected through the automatic generation of HLS directives. We evaluate our approach by comparing the static analysis results with formal verification. Our results show that the static approach has the same accuracy as formal methods while being 3× to 200× faster.

Original language	English (US)
Pages (from-to)	1
Number of pages	1
Journal	IEEE Embedded Systems Letters
Volume	16
Issue number	2
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1109/LES.2023.3329417
State	Published - Jun 1 2024

Keywords

Benchmark testing
Ciphers
Codes
Registers
Security
Space exploration
Static analysis

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Control and Systems Engineering
General Computer Science

Access to Document

10.1109/LES.2023.3329417

Cite this

@article{305f26c301d94d45b78b25fe18b03286,

title = "Using Static Analysis for Enhancing HLS Security",

abstract = "Due to the increasing complexity of modern integrated circuits, High-Level Synthesis (HLS) is becoming a key technology in hardware design. HLS uses optimizations to assist during design space exploration. However, some of them can introduce security weaknesses. We propose an approach that leverages static analysis to identify a class of weaknesses in HLS-generated code. We show that some of these weaknesses can be corrected through the automatic generation of HLS directives. We evaluate our approach by comparing the static analysis results with formal verification. Our results show that the static approach has the same accuracy as formal methods while being 3× to 200× faster.",

keywords = "Benchmark testing, Ciphers, Codes, Registers, Security, Space exploration, Static analysis",

author = "Luca Collini and Joey Ah-kiow and Christian Pilato and Ramesh Karri and Benjamin Tan",

note = "Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2009-2012 IEEE.",

year = "2024",

month = jun,

day = "1",

doi = "10.1109/LES.2023.3329417",

language = "English (US)",

volume = "16",

pages = "1",

journal = "IEEE Embedded Systems Letters",

issn = "1943-0663",

publisher = "Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.",

number = "2",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - Using Static Analysis for Enhancing HLS Security

AU - Collini, Luca

AU - Ah-kiow, Joey

AU - Pilato, Christian

AU - Karri, Ramesh

AU - Tan, Benjamin

PY - 2024/6/1

Y1 - 2024/6/1

N2 - Due to the increasing complexity of modern integrated circuits, High-Level Synthesis (HLS) is becoming a key technology in hardware design. HLS uses optimizations to assist during design space exploration. However, some of them can introduce security weaknesses. We propose an approach that leverages static analysis to identify a class of weaknesses in HLS-generated code. We show that some of these weaknesses can be corrected through the automatic generation of HLS directives. We evaluate our approach by comparing the static analysis results with formal verification. Our results show that the static approach has the same accuracy as formal methods while being 3× to 200× faster.

AB - Due to the increasing complexity of modern integrated circuits, High-Level Synthesis (HLS) is becoming a key technology in hardware design. HLS uses optimizations to assist during design space exploration. However, some of them can introduce security weaknesses. We propose an approach that leverages static analysis to identify a class of weaknesses in HLS-generated code. We show that some of these weaknesses can be corrected through the automatic generation of HLS directives. We evaluate our approach by comparing the static analysis results with formal verification. Our results show that the static approach has the same accuracy as formal methods while being 3× to 200× faster.

KW - Benchmark testing

KW - Ciphers

KW - Codes

KW - Registers

KW - Security

KW - Space exploration

KW - Static analysis

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85181581869&partnerID=8YFLogxK

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85181581869&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1109/LES.2023.3329417

DO - 10.1109/LES.2023.3329417

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85181581869

SN - 1943-0663

VL - 16

SP - 1

JO - IEEE Embedded Systems Letters

JF - IEEE Embedded Systems Letters

IS - 2

ER -

Using Static Analysis for Enhancing HLS Security

Abstract

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Access to Document

Other files and links

Fingerprint

Cite this