LoPher: SAT-Hardened Logic Embedding on Block Ciphers

• Joseth Garcia, Computer Science, University of Delaware

• Satwik Patnaik, Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Delaware

Hardware security is an important part of cybersecurity. Since hardware cannot be updated or changed, unlike software, it is important to ensure it is as secure as possible. A part of hardware security is logic locking, a design concealment mechanism for protecting the IPs integrated into modern System-on-Chip (SoC) architectures from a wide range of hardware security threats at the IC manufacturing supply chain. Block ciphers are a type of cryptography that has been unexplored in the world of logic locking. We decided to create a Python script that would use block ciphers to hide logic gates. This idea can be further used to protect the Intellectual Property (IP) of the hardware cores. This work was aided by a first-of-its-kind research paper that explored the idea of using block ciphers in logic locking.