Security for volatile FPGAs

With reconfigurable devices fast becoming complete systems in their own right, interest in their security properties has increased. While research on “FPGA sec-urity ” has been active since the early 2000s, few have treated the field as a whole, or framed its challenges in the context of the unique FPGA usage model and ap-plication space. This dissertation sets out to examine the role of FPGAs within a security system and how solutions to security challenges can be provided. I offer the following contributions. I motivate authenticating configurations as an additional capability to FPGA configuration logic, and then describe a flexible security protocol for remote recon-figuration of FPGA-based systems over insecure networks. Non-volatile memory devices are used for persistent storage when required, and complement the lack of features in some FPGAs with tamper proofing in order to maintain specified secur-ity properties. A unique advantage of the protocol is that it can be implemented on some existing FPGAs (i.e., it does not require FPGA vendors to add function-ality to their devices). Also proposed is a solution to the “IP distribution problem