ICmetrics for Low Resource Embedded Systems

Abstract

The ICmetrics technology is based on extracting features from digital devices' operation that may be integrated together to generate unique identifiers for each of the devices or create unique profiles that describe the devices' actual behaviour. Any changes in these identifiers (profiles) during consequent devices' operation would signal about a possible safety or security breach within the electronic system. This paper explores the program counter (PC) of a processor core as a potential source for ICmetrics features and discusses several methods of feature values acquisition with the aim to achieve a maximum level of information gain with a minimal impact on a system's performance. The main finding of this study is that while isolated PC values may not always allow to generate a stable identifier (profile) for a device that would distinguish the device from the rest in the considered set, the PC sequences and frequencies in the execution flow may serve as suitable ICmetrics features, which has yet to be tested in complex scenarios.