Securing Hardware Development Process using Blockchain

Abstract

Modern microprocessors contain millions of gates and finding a small hidden malicious hardware trojan (HT) is difficult. Additionally, these HTs may not need any additional external input pins to activate. Many solutions have been proposed to find these HTs, but none of the solutions gives promising result due to their limitations. Moreover, pre-silicon verification and post-silicon testing also don't address the issue of HTs. In this paper we present methodology to limit the possibily of inserting HTs based on blockchain technology. It is better to limit the opportunity for insertion of HT than finding them afterwards in the design and fabrication process. We proposed a solution for monitoring hardware development process files to maintain integrity and trustful relationship using encryption and smart contracts in a blockchain network.