Hardware Security

Catalog description

Modern computing devices and infrastructure manage and mediate critical systems and important information. How do we assure that these systems are available when we need them, are used only as intended, and only allow changes and disclosure of data as intended? Security is a cross-layer issue spanning the hardware-software stack for both attacks and protection. The root of many security vulnerabilities, as well as many potential solutions to address them, lie in the design of the hardware that supports the systems. This course reviews attacks and vulnerabilities and techniques to address them. It lays the groundwork to systematically address security from the hardware up. It reviews traditional challenges (e.g. buffer overflow, control flow hijacking), information leakage (e.g. timing, power consumption, RF emissions), emerging side-channel leakage (e.g. SPECTRE/Meltdown), and physical attacks (e.g., RowHammer, power, cryogenic) as well as well as various approaches to address them (e.g., Virtual Memory, Virtual Machines, capabilities, tagging, obfuscation, encryption). Concerns and solutions will include processor design, as well as custom hardware, networking, systems, and SoCs. Recommended prerequisites: CIS 4480 /5480 and CIS 4710 /5710