An Optimal Methodology for EM-Based Hardware Trojan Placement on Clock Tree Networks
Αλεξάνδρα Τάκου, Olympia Axelou, George Floros, Nestor Evmorfopoulos, George I. Stamoulis · 2023
Hardware Trojans (HTs) are a significant concern in hardware security research due to their potential to compromise critical systems. The emergence of large current densities in circuit interconnections, such as clock tree networks, in recent technology nodes, has made electromigration (EM) a crucial factor in the formation of highly sophisticated HTs. As a result, there is a need for efficient techniques for the placement of EM-based HT benchmarks for evaluating the effectiveness of the corresponding HT detection methods. In this paper, we propose an optimal EM-based HT placement methodology that generates benchmarks that are extremely difficult to detect via side-channel measurements. Our methodology computes the hydrostatic stress caused by EM in clock tree networks and integrates the HT circuitry to minimize its impact on chip performance. Experimental results on a range of clock tree networks demonstrate that our methodology produces challenging HT benchmarks while rninimizing the stress currents overhead.