In a world of multinational production chains, hardware trojans inserted by untrusted third parties are an emerging threat for the security of integrated circuits.

Detection methods have come a long way, but still cannot archieve good performance in realistic scenarios.

During this thesis, you will implement and improve an existing hardware trojan detection method.

The following list of prerequisites is neither complete nor binding, but shall give you an idea, what the topic is about.

• Sufficient knowledge in a High-Level Programming language such as python, because machine learning and reverse engineering tools build on this
• Basic to intermediate knowledge of a hardware description language such as vhdl or verilog for understanding the trojan samples
• Basic knowledge in design/architecture of hardware design to understand  trojan location and insertion.

In a world of multinational production chains, hardware trojans inserted by untrusted third parties are an emerging threat for the security of integrated circuits.

In order to develop methods for hardware trojan detection, specimens of hardware trojans are needed. Unfortunately, the variety of specimen currently available is very low.

During this thesis, you will implement a hardware trojan for a FPGA or ASIC circuit.

The following list of prerequisites is neither complete nor binding, but shall give you an idea, what the topic is about.

• Sufficient knowledge in a High-Level Programming language such as python for designing an interface
• Basic to intermediate knowledge of a hardware description language such as vhdl or verilog for designing the trojan
• Basic knowledge in design/architecture of cryptographic algorithms / CPUs to know where a trojan might be injected

Side-Channel based exfiltration of cryptographic secrets is an long-standing and ever occuring problem when implementing cryptographic algorithms under the assumption of real hardware.

Established formally-proved countermeasures against side channels do not provide definite protection. In the real world, a multitude of hardening measures are necessary to provide in depth-protection.

In this thesis, you will try and compare different methods of in-depth protection.

The following list of prerequisites is neither complete nor binding, but shall give you an idea, what the topic is about.

• Sufficient knowledge in a High-Level Programming language such as python for measurement automisation etc.
• Basic to intermediate knowledge of a hardware description language such as vhdl or verilog for designing the hardening measures
• In the optimum case experience with FPGAs to try the measures in the real world.
• Knowledge in design/architecture of cryptographic algorithms to know when and how to do the hardening.

In a world of multinational production chains, hardware trojans inserted by untrusted third parties are an emerging threat for the security of integrated circuits.

Detection methods have come a long way, but still cannot archieve good performance in realistic scenarios.

During this thesis, you will implement and improve an existing hardware trojan detection method.

The following list of prerequisites is neither complete nor binding, but shall give you an idea, what the topic is about.

• Sufficient knowledge in a High-Level Programming language such as python, because machine learning and reverse engineering tools build on this
• Basic to intermediate knowledge of a hardware description language such as vhdl or verilog for understanding the trojan samples
• Basic knowledge in design/architecture of hardware design to understand  trojan location and insertion.

In a world of multinational production chains, hardware trojans inserted by untrusted third parties are an emerging threat for the security of integrated circuits.

In order to develop methods for hardware trojan detection, specimens of hardware trojans are needed. Unfortunately, the variety of specimen currently available is very low.

During this thesis, you will implement a hardware trojan for a FPGA or ASIC circuit.

The following list of prerequisites is neither complete nor binding, but shall give you an idea, what the topic is about.

• Sufficient knowledge in a High-Level Programming language such as python for designing an interface
• Basic to intermediate knowledge of a hardware description language such as vhdl or verilog for designing the trojan
• Basic knowledge in design/architecture of cryptographic algorithms / CPUs to know where a trojan might be injected

Side-Channel based exfiltration of cryptographic secrets is an long-standing and ever occuring problem when implementing cryptographic algorithms under the assumption of real hardware.

Established formally-proved countermeasures against side channels do not provide definite protection. In the real world, a multitude of hardening measures are necessary to provide in depth-protection.

In this thesis, you will try and compare different methods of in-depth protection.

The following list of prerequisites is neither complete nor binding, but shall give you an idea, what the topic is about.

• Sufficient knowledge in a High-Level Programming language such as python for measurement automisation etc.
• Basic to intermediate knowledge of a hardware description language such as vhdl or verilog for designing the hardening measures
• In the optimum case experience with FPGAs to try the measures in the real world.
• Knowledge in design/architecture of cryptographic algorithms to know when and how to do the hardening.

In a world of multinational production chains, hardware trojans inserted by untrusted third parties are an emerging threat for the security of integrated circuits.

Detection methods have come a long way, but still cannot archieve good performance in realistic scenarios.

During this thesis, you will implement and improve an existing hardware trojan detection method.

The following list of prerequisites is neither complete nor binding, but shall give you an idea, what the topic is about.

• Sufficient knowledge in a High-Level Programming language such as python, because machine learning and reverse engineering tools build on this
• Basic to intermediate knowledge of a hardware description language such as vhdl or verilog for understanding the trojan samples
• Basic knowledge in design/architecture of hardware design to understand  trojan location and insertion.

In a world of multinational production chains, hardware trojans inserted by untrusted third parties are an emerging threat for the security of integrated circuits.

In order to develop methods for hardware trojan detection, specimens of hardware trojans are needed. Unfortunately, the variety of specimen currently available is very low.

During this thesis, you will implement a hardware trojan for a FPGA or ASIC circuit.

The following list of prerequisites is neither complete nor binding, but shall give you an idea, what the topic is about.

• Sufficient knowledge in a High-Level Programming language such as python for designing an interface
• Basic to intermediate knowledge of a hardware description language such as vhdl or verilog for designing the trojan
• Basic knowledge in design/architecture of cryptographic algorithms / CPUs to know where a trojan might be injected