Hardware Trojan Testing with Hierarchical Trojan Types Under Cognitive Biases
Satyaki Nan, Swastik K. Brahma · 2024
In this paper, we consider the problem of testing Integrated Circuits (ICs) to check for the presence of hardware Trojans while diligently accounting for the hierarchical classification structure of Trojans, the error-prone nature of testing processes, and the strategic mindsets and behavioral irrationalities (cognitive biases) of buyers and manufacturers of ICs. As shown in the paper, such factors greatly impact the design of Trojan insertion and testing strategies. Under a hierarchy of Trojan types and testing imperfections, the paper first analytically characterizes Trojan insertion-testing strategies at Nash Equilibrium (NE) considering a buyer (defender) and malicious manufacturer (attacker) to be strategic and rational in nature. Then, the paper analytically characterizes such strategies when the involved entities are strategic but irrational in nature. Among others, results presented in the paper emphasize the asymmetric nature of the impact of behavioral irrationalities on the defender’s and attacker’s utilities. The paper also presents numerous simulation results to gain important insights into our analytically characterized Trojan insertion-testing strategies.