Hardware Trojan detection using path delay fingerprint

Abstract

Trusted IC design is a recently emerged topic since fabrication factories are moving worldwide in order to reduce cost. In order to get a low-cost but effective hardware trojan detection method to complement traditional testing methods, a new behavior-oriented category method is proposed to divide trojans into two categories: explicit payload trojan and implicit payload trojan. This categorization method makes it possible to construct trojan models and then lower the cost of testing. Path delays of nominal chips are collected to construct a series of fingerprints, each one representing one aspect of the total characteristics of a genuine design. Chips are validated by comparing their delay parameters to the fingerprints. The comparison of path delays makes small trojan circuits significant from a delay point of view. The experimentpsilas results show that the detection rate on explicit payload trojans is 100%, while this method should be developed further if used to detect implicit payload trojans.