Reverse Engineering of Cryptographic Cores by Structural Interpretation Through Graph Analysis

Reverse Engineering (RE) of integrated circuits (ICs) is generally defined as the recovery process of unknown system internals. While advanced solutions to extract gate-level netlists from a target device exist, the possibility of subsequent interpretation is limited, in particular in complex devices. This paper introduces a novel graph based method for identifying intellectual property (IP) blocks within an unstructured netlist by using graph analysis. Without prior knowledge of the targeting device, firstly, associated structural components, secondly, functional components and, thirdly, the initial design hierarchy will be identified by this method. Experimental results using realworld netlists including cryptographic cores show the efficiency and efficacy of the presented method.     «

Reverse Engineering (RE) of integrated circuits (ICs) is generally defined as the recovery process of unknown system internals. While advanced solutions to extract gate-level netlists from a target device exist, the possibility of subsequent interpretation is limited, in particular in complex devices. This paper introduces a novel graph based method for identifying intellectual property (IP) blocks within an unstructured netlist by using graph analysis. Without prior knowledge of the targeting...     »