A Survey of Techniques for Improving Security of GPUs

TL;DR

This survey reviews various techniques for analyzing and enhancing GPU security, highlighting vulnerabilities and countermeasures to inform researchers and users about protecting GPUs from malware and attacks.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive classification and comparison of existing GPU security techniques, emphasizing their strengths and weaknesses.

Findings

GPU vulnerabilities enable malware stealthiness

Various security techniques exist for GPU protection

Awareness of GPU security issues is crucial for mitigation

Abstract

Graphics processing unit (GPU), although a powerful performance-booster, also has many security vulnerabilities. Due to these, the GPU can act as a safe-haven for stealthy malware and the weakest `link' in the security `chain'. In this paper, we present a survey of techniques for analyzing and improving GPU security. We classify the works on key attributes to highlight their similarities and differences. More than informing users and researchers about GPU security techniques, this survey aims to increase their awareness about GPU security vulnerabilities and potential countermeasures.