Abstract:
Relentless innovation in chip design, fabrication, and test has enabled extraordinary integration of semiconductors in our daily lives. These semiconductors increasingly monitor, process, and communicate critical data which can have business, public safety, and national security implications if under the control of untrusted adversaries. To ensure a resilient and secure lifecycle for semiconductors, a multi-prong approach must be adopted through design, provisioning, authentication, and communication with the chip. Several approaches to managing this complex challenge will be discussed which assume no one player in the ecosystem is to be automatically trusted. Adopting this mindset has many implications, while creating cryptographically bound relationships to enforce trust. Examples of techniques which can be employed consistent with this mindset include how secrets are stored or generated in silicon, cryptographic keys are loaded in splits throughout the lifecycle, provisioning on the factory floor is made tamper resistant, and how secure services can ultimately be tethered to hardware roots of trust. These and other approaches to securing chips can support a more resilient and connected semiconductor ecosystem.