research-article

Complete information flow tracking from the gates up

Authors:

Hassan M.G. Wassel,

Shashidhar Mysore,

Frederic T. Chong,

Timothy SherwoodAuthors Info & Claims

ACM SIGPLAN Notices, Volume 44, Issue 3

Pages 109 - 120

https://doi.org/10.1145/1508284.1508258

Published: 07 March 2009 Publication History

Abstract

For many mission-critical tasks, tight guarantees on the flow of information are desirable, for example, when handling important cryptographic keys or sensitive financial data. We present a novel architecture capable of tracking all information flow within the machine, including all explicit data transfers and all implicit flows (those subtly devious flows caused by not performing conditional operations). While the problem is impossible to solve in the general case, we have created a machine that avoids the general-purpose programmability that leads to this impossibility result, yet is still programmable enough to handle a variety of critical operations such as public-key encryption and authentication. Through the application of our novel gate-level information flow tracking method, we show how all flows of information can be precisely tracked. From this foundation, we then describe how a class of architectures can be constructed, from the gates up, to completely capture all information flows and we measure the impact of doing so on the hardware implementation, the ISA, and the programmer.

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Cited By

Qin MZhu JMao BHu W(2024)Hardware/software security co-verification and vulnerability detectionIntegration, the VLSI Journal10.1016/j.vlsi.2023.10208994:COnline publication date: 1-Jan-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1016/j.vlsi.2023.102089
Meng XRaj KRay SBasu K(2023)SeVNoC: Security Validation of System-on-Chip Designs With NoC FabricsIEEE Transactions on Computer-Aided Design of Integrated Circuits and Systems10.1109/TCAD.2022.317930742:2(672-682)Online publication date: Feb-2023
https://doi.org/10.1109/TCAD.2022.3179307
Goli MDrechsler RGoli MDrechsler R(2023)Anwendung II: SicherheitsvalidierungAutomatisierte Analyse von virtuellen Prototypen auf der Ebene elektronischer Systeme10.1007/978-3-031-36997-1_5(113-134)Online publication date: 20-Sep-2023
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-36997-1_5
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Index Terms

Complete information flow tracking from the gates up
1. Computer systems organization
  1. Embedded and cyber-physical systems
  2. Real-time systems

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Information flow tracking (IFT) is a fundamental computer security technique used to understand how information moves through a computing system. Hardware IFT techniques specifically target security vulnerabilities related to the design, verification, ...
Complete information flow tracking from the gates up
ASPLOS XIV: Proceedings of the 14th international conference on Architectural support for programming languages and operating systems

For many mission-critical tasks, tight guarantees on the flow of information are desirable, for example, when handling important cryptographic keys or sensitive financial data. We present a novel architecture capable of tracking all information flow ...
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For many mission-critical tasks, tight guarantees on the flow of information are desirable, for example, when handling important cryptographic keys or sensitive financial data. We present a novel architecture capable of tracking all information flow ...

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Information & Contributors

Information

Published In

cover image ACM SIGPLAN Notices

ACM SIGPLAN Notices Volume 44, Issue 3

ASPLOS 2009

March 2009

346 pages

ISSN:0362-1340

EISSN:1558-1160

DOI:10.1145/1508284

Issue’s Table of Contents

ASPLOS XIV: Proceedings of the 14th international conference on Architectural support for programming languages and operating systems
March 2009
358 pages
ISBN:9781605584065
DOI:10.1145/1508244
General Chair:
Mary Lou Soffa
University of Virginia, USA
,
Program Chair:
Mary Jane Irwin
Penn State University, USA

Copyright © 2009 ACM.

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Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

Publication History

Published: 07 March 2009

Published in SIGPLAN Volume 44, Issue 3

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Cited By

Qin MZhu JMao BHu W(2024)Hardware/software security co-verification and vulnerability detectionIntegration, the VLSI Journal10.1016/j.vlsi.2023.10208994:COnline publication date: 1-Jan-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1016/j.vlsi.2023.102089
Meng XRaj KRay SBasu K(2023)SeVNoC: Security Validation of System-on-Chip Designs With NoC FabricsIEEE Transactions on Computer-Aided Design of Integrated Circuits and Systems10.1109/TCAD.2022.317930742:2(672-682)Online publication date: Feb-2023
https://doi.org/10.1109/TCAD.2022.3179307
Goli MDrechsler RGoli MDrechsler R(2023)Anwendung II: SicherheitsvalidierungAutomatisierte Analyse von virtuellen Prototypen auf der Ebene elektronischer Systeme10.1007/978-3-031-36997-1_5(113-134)Online publication date: 20-Sep-2023
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-36997-1_5
Farahmandi FRahman MRajendran STehranipoor MFarahmandi FRahman MRajendran STehranipoor M(2023)CAD for Information Leakage AssessmentCAD for Hardware Security10.1007/978-3-031-26896-0_4(81-102)Online publication date: 28-Jan-2023
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-26896-0_4
Zhang QLiu LYuan YZhang ZHe JGao YLi YGuo XZhao Y(2022)A Gate-Level Information Leakage Detection Framework of Sequential Circuit Using Z3Electronics10.3390/electronics1124421611:24(4216)Online publication date: 16-Dec-2022
https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics11244216
Meng XKundu SKanuparthi ABasu K(2022)RTL-ConTest: Concolic Testing on RTL for Detecting Security VulnerabilitiesIEEE Transactions on Computer-Aided Design of Integrated Circuits and Systems10.1109/TCAD.2021.306656041:3(466-477)Online publication date: Mar-2022
https://doi.org/10.1109/TCAD.2021.3066560
Deutschbein CMeza ARestuccia FKastner RSturton C(2022)Isadora: automated information-flow property generation for hardware security verificationJournal of Cryptographic Engineering10.1007/s13389-022-00306-w13:4(391-407)Online publication date: 11-Nov-2022
https://doi.org/10.1007/s13389-022-00306-w
Dangwal DZhang ZCrandall JSherwood T(2021)Context-Aware Privacy-Optimizing Address Tracing2021 International Symposium on Secure and Private Execution Environment Design (SEED)10.1109/SEED51797.2021.00027(150-162)Online publication date: Sep-2021
https://doi.org/10.1109/SEED51797.2021.00027
Hu WArdeshiricham AWu LKastner R(2021)Integrating Information Flow Tracking into High-Level Synthesis Design FlowBehavioral Synthesis for Hardware Security10.1007/978-3-030-78841-4_16(365-387)Online publication date: 28-May-2021
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-78841-4_16
Sapountzis NSun RWei XJin YCrandall JOliveira D(2020)MITOS: Optimal Decisioning for the Indirect Flow Propagation Dilemma in Dynamic Information Flow Tracking Systems2020 IEEE 40th International Conference on Distributed Computing Systems (ICDCS)10.1109/ICDCS47774.2020.00093(1090-1100)Online publication date: Nov-2020
https://doi.org/10.1109/ICDCS47774.2020.00093
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