Granted Patent B2

US 12,585,783 · App. 17/191,038 · Granted Mar 24, 2026

Inventor: Sheikh Ariful Islam (Tampa, FL)

Assignee: UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH FLORIDA

G06F21/577G06F2221/034

Abstract

Claims (59)

1 . A non-transitory computer readable storage medium having instructions stored thereon that, in response to execution by a computing device, cause the computing device to:

detect a hardware trojan triggering signal in a design of an integrated circuit, using a graph-based analysis that is golden-design agnostic comprising:

performing a simulation of an application of a test pattern running on an integrated circuit having the design, which simulates gate-level activity of the integrated circuit;

capturing switching activity of nodes for the design of the integrated circuit during the simulation;

identifying one or more nodes in a graphical representation of the design that do not toggle within an individual window of time of a sequence of multiple, non-overlapping windows of time during the simulation, wherein each window of time has a same period comprising a predetermined time period of two or more consecutive clock cycles;

identifying a set of rare paths of the design for each window of the sequence of multiple, non-overlapping windows of time, wherein each rare path for a given window:

is comprised of two or more nodes identified as not having toggled within the given window;

has distinct endpoints which are not in the same graph level; and

is not a segment of a critical path of the design;

determining a subset of unique rare paths of the set of rare paths for each window of the sequence of multiple non-overlapping windows of time, wherein each unique rare path is not a segment of another rare path within a same window;

identifying one or more unique rare paths of the design that occur across consecutive windows of time;

appending the one or more unique rare paths that occur across the consecutive windows of time in a set of dominating unique rare paths; and

output the one or more unique rare paths in the set of dominating unique rare paths as rare trojan horse triggering paths for the design.

2 . The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 1 , wherein the instructions further cause the computing device to:

determine a range of activation times for one of the rare trojan horse triggering paths; and

output the range of activation time for at least one of the rare trojan horse triggering paths.

3 . The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 2 , wherein the range of activation times is determined by identifying a beginning for the range corresponding to a start point for an earliest one of the consecutive windows of time for the rare trojan horse triggering path and identifying an end for the range corresponding to an endpoint for a farthest one of the consecutive windows of time for the rare trojan horse triggering path.

4 . The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 2 , wherein the instructions further cause the computing device to compare the range of activation times for the at least one of the rare trojan horse triggering paths with an activation time range of an existing hardware trojan horse instance and output an alert when the range of activation times matches with the activating time range of the existing hardware trojan horse instance.

5 . The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 2 , wherein the graphical representation of the design comprises a netlist represented as a directed acyclic graph.

6 . A system comprising:

a processor; and

a memory having instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to:

detect a hardware trojan triggering signal in a design of an integrated circuit, using a graph-based analysis that is golden-design agnostic comprising:

performing a simulation of an application of a test pattern running on an integrated circuit having the design, which simulates gate-level activity of the integrated circuit;

capturing switching activity of nodes for the design of the integrated circuit during the simulation;

identifying one or more nodes in a graphical representation of the design that do not toggle within an individual window of time of a sequence of multiple, non-overlapping windows of time during the simulation, wherein each window of time has a same period comprising a predetermined time period of two or more consecutive clock cycles;

identifying a set of rare paths of the design for each window of the sequence of multiple, non-overlapping windows of time, wherein each rare path for a given window:

is comprised of two or more nodes identified as not having toggled within the given window;

has distinct endpoints which are not in the same graph level; and

is not a segment of a critical path of the design;

determining a subset of unique rare paths of the set of rare paths for each window of the sequence of multiple non-overlapping windows of time, wherein each unique rare path is not a segment of another rare path within a same window;

identifying one or more unique rare paths of the design that occur across consecutive windows of time;

appending the one or more unique rare paths that occur across the consecutive windows of time in a set of dominating unique rare paths; and

output the one or more unique rare paths in the set of dominating unique rare paths as rare trojan horse triggering paths for the design.

7 . The system of claim 6 , wherein the instructions further cause the processor to:

determine a range of activation times for one of the rare trojan horse triggering paths; and

output the range of activation time for at least one of the rare trojan horse triggering paths.

8 . The system of claim 7 , wherein the range of activation times is determined by identifying a beginning for the range corresponding to a start point for an earliest one of the consecutive windows of time for the rare trojan horse triggering path and identifying an end for the range corresponding to an endpoint for a farthest one of the consecutive windows of time for the rare trojan horse triggering path.

9 . The system of claim 7 , wherein the instructions further cause the processor to compare the range of activation times for the at least one of the rare trojan horse triggering paths with an activation time range of an existing hardware trojan horse instance and output an alert when the range of activation times matches with the activating time range of the existing hardware trojan horse instance.

10 . The system of claim 7 , wherein the graphical representation of the design comprises a netlist represented as a directed acyclic graph.

11 . A method comprising:

detecting, by a computing device, a hardware trojan triggering signal in a design of an integrated circuit, using a graph-based analysis that is golden-design agnostic comprising:

performing a simulation of an application of a test pattern running on an integrated circuit having the design, which simulates gate-level activity of the integrated circuit;

capturing switching activity of nodes for the design of the integrated circuit during the simulation;

identifying one or more nodes in a graphical representation of the design that do not toggle within an individual window of time of a sequence of multiple, non-overlapping windows of time during the simulation, wherein each window of time has a same period comprising a predetermined time period of two or more consecutive clock cycles;

identifying a set of rare paths of the design for each window of the sequence of multiple, non-overlapping windows of time, wherein each rare path for a given window:

is comprised of two or more nodes identified as not having toggled within the given window;

has distinct endpoints which are not in the same graph level; and

is not a segment of a critical path of the design;

determining a subset of unique rare paths of the set of rare paths for each window of the sequence of multiple non-overlapping windows of time, wherein each unique rare path is not a segment of another rare path within a same window;

identifying one or more unique rare paths of the design that occur across consecutive windows of time;

appending the one or more unique rare paths that occur across the consecutive windows of time in a set of dominating unique rare paths; and

outputting the one or more unique rare paths in the set of dominating unique rare paths as rare trojan horse triggering paths for the design.

12 . The method of claim 11 , further comprising:

determining, by the computing device, a range of activation times for one of the rare trojan horse triggering paths; and

outputting, by the computing device, the range of activation time for at least one of the rare trojan horse triggering paths.

13 . The method of claim 12 , wherein the range of activation times is determined by identifying a beginning for the range corresponding to a start point for an earliest one of the consecutive windows of time for the rare trojan horse triggering path and identifying an end for the range corresponding to an endpoint for a farthest one of the consecutive windows of time for the rare trojan horse triggering path.

14 . The method of claim 12 , further comprising comparing the range of activation times for the at least one of the rare trojan horse triggering paths with an activation time range of an existing hardware trojan horse instance and outputting an alert when the range of activation times matches with the activating time range of the existing hardware trojan horse instance.

15 . The method of claim 12 , wherein the graphical representation of the design comprises a netlist represented as a directed acyclic graph.

Assignments (1)

Continuity (2)

References Cited (67)