Researchers Spot Silicon-Level Hardware Trojans in Chips (opens in new tab)

(hackster.io)

19 pointsNextHendrix3y ago5 comments

5 comments

Researchers develop techniques to spot hardware trojans.

I assume that most or all of the common CPUs you can buy today include backdoors inserted at the request of one intelligence agency or another.

exabrial3y ago

Seems like two things are in direct conflict: On one hand, a company needs to protect it's IP and prevent China from outright copying it's designs and selling without the R&D cost attached. On the other hand, but publishing it's designs, it can be verified as safe by anyone.

ElfinTrousers3y ago

By publishing their designs, anyone can verify the _published_ design as safe. That doesn't necessarily mean that the chips that are actually manufactured are according to that design.

andreareina3y ago

The idea of these techniques is that the physical chips can be compared against the reference designs. Though I didn't see whether they're able to detect changes in behaviour due to doping.

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5 comments

andreareina3y ago

Researchers develop techniques to spot hardware trojans.

ElfinTrousers3y ago

I assume that most or all of the common CPUs you can buy today include backdoors inserted at the request of one intelligence agency or another.

exabrial3y ago

ElfinTrousers3y ago

By publishing their designs, anyone can verify the _published_ design as safe. That doesn't necessarily mean that the chips that are actually manufactured are according to that design.

andreareina3y ago

The idea of these techniques is that the physical chips can be compared against the reference designs. Though I didn't see whether they're able to detect changes in behaviour due to doping.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse