Game and Prospect Theoretic Hardware Trojan Testing

Abstract

In this paper, we address the problem of hardware Trojan testing with the buyer of an Integrated Circuit (IC), who is referred to as the defender, and the malicious manufacturer of the IC, who is referred to as the attacker, strategically acting against each other. Our developed model accounts for both imperfections in the testing process as well as costs incurred for performing testing. First, we analytically characterize Nash Equilibrium (NE) strategies for Trojan insertion and testing from the attacker's and the defender's perspectives, respectively, considering them to be fully rational in nature. Further, we also characterize NE-based Trojan insertion-testing strategies considering the attacker and the defender to have cognitive biases which make them exhibit irrationalities in their behaviors. Numerous simulation results are presented throughout the paper to provide important insights.