Towards Cognitive Obfuscation: Impeding Hardware Reverse Engineering Based on Psychological Insights

Abstract

In contrast to software reverse engineering, there are hardly any tools available that support hardware reversing. Therefore, the reversing process is conducted by human analysts combining several complex semi-automated steps. However, countermeasures against reversing are evaluated solely against mathematical models. Our research goal is the establishment of cognitive obfuscation based on the exploration of underlying psychological processes. We aim to identify problems which are hard to solve for human analysts and derive novel quantification metrics, thus enabling stronger obfuscation techniques.

References in corpus (3)

• Hardware Reverse Engineering: Overview and Open Challenges
• A Look at the Dark Side of Hardware Reverse Engineering -- A Case Study
• Teaching Hardware Reverse Engineering: Educational Guidelines and Practical Insights

Cited by in corpus (4)

• Highway to HAL: Open-Sourcing the First Extendable Gate-Level Netlist Reverse Engineering Framework
• Promoting the Acquisition of Hardware Reverse Engineering Skills
• I see an IC: A Mixed-Methods Approach to Study Human Problem-Solving Processes in Hardware Reverse Engineering
• REVERSIM: An Open-Source Environment for the Controlled Study of Human Aspects in Hardware Reverse Engineering