Red Teaming Methodology for Design Obfuscation

TL;DR

This paper introduces a systematic red teaming methodology to evaluate the security of design obfuscation techniques in VLSI, revealing potential information leaks and providing metrics for assessing obfuscation robustness.

Contribution

It proposes a new evaluation framework and security metrics for design obfuscation, including a case study demonstrating vulnerabilities in existing tools.

Findings

RIPPER tool leaks more design structure information than previously thought

The proposed methodology effectively identifies security weaknesses in obfuscation schemes

Security metrics help quantify the resilience of obfuscation methods

Abstract

The main goal of design obfuscation schemes is to protect sensitive design details from untrusted parties in the VLSI supply chain, including but not limited to off-shore foundries and untrusted end users. In this work, we provide a systematic red teaming approach to evaluate the security of design obfuscation approaches. Specifically, we propose security metrics and evaluation methodology for the scenarios where the adversary does not have access to a working chip. A case study on the RIPPER tool developed by the University of Florida indicates that more information is leaked about the structure of the original design than commonly considered.