Assert-O: Context-based Assertion Optimization using LLMs

Modern computing relies on System-on-Chips (SoCs), integrating IP cores for complex functions. However, this integration introduces vulnerabilities, necessitating rigorous hardware security validation. The effectiveness of this validation depends on the security properties embedded in the SoC. Recent studies explore large language models (LLMs) for generating security properties, but these may not be directly optimized for validation. Manual intervention remains necessary to reduce their number. Security validation methods that rely on human expertise are not scalable as they are time-intensive and prone to human error. In order to address these issues, we introduce Assert-O, an automated framework designed to derive security properties from SoC documentation and optimize the generated properties. It also ranks the properties based on the security vulnerabilities they are associated with, thereby streamlining the validation process. Our method leverages hardware documentation to initially create security properties, which are subsequently consolidated and prioritized based on their level of criticality. This approach serves to expedite the validation procedure. Assert-O is trained on documentation of six IPs from OpenTitan. To evaluate our proposed method, Assert-O was assessed on five other modules from OpenTitan. Assert-O was able to generate 183 properties, which was further optimized to reduce them to 138 properties. Subsequently, these properties were ranked based on their impact on the security of the overall system.