Information Flow Tracking Methods for Protecting Cyber-Physical Systems against Hardware Trojans -- a Survey

TL;DR

This survey reviews information flow tracking methods as a promising approach to detect hardware Trojans in cyber-physical systems, highlighting current limitations and suggesting future research directions.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of IFT methods for CPS security against hardware Trojans and discusses their advantages and challenges.

Findings

IFT methods can detect stealthy hardware Trojans without relying on Trojan behavior

Current limitations include the need for black-box models and real-world attack scenarios

Research should focus on practical application and robustness of IFT techniques

Abstract

Cyber-physical systems (CPS) provide profitable surfaces for hardware attacks such as hardware Trojans. Hardware Trojans can implement stealthy attacks such as leaking critical information, taking control of devices or harm humans. In this article we review information flow tracking (IFT) methods for protecting CPS against hardware Trojans, and discuss their current limitations. IFT methods are a promising approach for the detection of hardware Trojans in complex systems because the detection mechanism does not necessarily rely on potential Trojan behavior. However, in order to maximize the benefits research should focus more on black-box design models and consider real-world attack scenarios.