Red Teaming Methodology for Design Obfuscation

Abstract: The main goal of design obfuscation schemes is to protect sensitive design details from untrusted parties in the VLSI supply chain, including but not limited to off-shore foundries and untrusted end users. In this work, we provide a systematic red teaming approach to evaluate the security of design obfuscation approaches. Specifically, we propose security metrics and evaluation methodology for the scenarios where the adversary does not have access to a working chip. A case study on the RIPPER tool developed by the University of Florida indicates that more information is leaked about the structure of the original design than commonly considered.