A Security Vulnerability Analysis of SoCFPGA Architectures

Abstract

SoCFPGAs or FPGAs integrated on the same die with chip multi processors have made it to the market in the past years. In this article we analyse various security loopholes, existing precautions and countermeasures in these architectures. We consider Intel Cyclone/Arria devices and Xilinx Zynq/Ultrascale devices. We present an attacker model and we highlight three different types of attacks namely direct memory attacks, cache timing attacks, and rowhammer attacks that can be used on inadequately protected systems. We present and compare existing security mechanisms in this architectures, and their shortfalls. We present real life example of these attacks and further countermeasures to secure systems based on SoCFPGAs.