Adaptive systems and procedures for defending a processor against transient fault attacks
First Claim
1. A method operational on a processor device, comprising:
- detecting transient faults within the processor device wherein the transient faults occur within the processor device;
counting a number of the detected transient faults within a tracking interval;
continuously devoting an amount of processor device resources to transient fault defense;
adaptively adjusting a control parameter in response to the detected transient faults to adaptively control the amount of processor device resources devoted to transient fault defense compared to an amount of processor device resources devoted to other operations, the control parameter adaptively adjusted to change a clock signal of the processor device to therefore vary time localization of at least one processor device resource relative to the detected transient faults; and
disabling the processor device when the count of detected transient faults exceeds a threshold during the tracking interval.
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Accused Products
Abstract
Various features pertain to defending a smartphone processor or other device from a transient fault attack. In one example, the processor is equipped to detect transient faults using a fault detection system and to adaptively adjust a control parameter in response to the transient faults, where the control parameter controls a physical operation of the processor (such as by gating its clock signal) or a functional operation of the fault detection system (such as a particular Software Fault Sensor (SFS) employed to detect transient faults). In some examples, in response to each newly detected fault, the detection system is controlled to consume more processor time to become more aggressive in detecting additional faults. This serves to quickly escalate fault detection in response to an on-going attack to promptly detect the attack so that the device can be disabled to prevent loss of sensitive information, such as security keys or passcodes.
13 Citations
42 Claims
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1. A method operational on a processor device, comprising:
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detecting transient faults within the processor device wherein the transient faults occur within the processor device; counting a number of the detected transient faults within a tracking interval; continuously devoting an amount of processor device resources to transient fault defense; adaptively adjusting a control parameter in response to the detected transient faults to adaptively control the amount of processor device resources devoted to transient fault defense compared to an amount of processor device resources devoted to other operations, the control parameter adaptively adjusted to change a clock signal of the processor device to therefore vary time localization of at least one processor device resource relative to the detected transient faults; and disabling the processor device when the count of detected transient faults exceeds a threshold during the tracking interval. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11)
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12. A processor device, comprising:
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a communication interface; a processing circuit coupled to the communication interface, the processing circuit configured to detect transient faults within the processor device wherein the transient faults occur within the processor device; count a number of the detected transient faults within a tracking interval; continuously devoting an amount of processor device resources to transient fault defense; adaptively adjust a control parameter of the processor device in response to the transient faults to adaptively control the amount of processor device resources devoted to transient fault defense compared to an amount of processor device resources devoted to other operations, the control parameter adaptively adjusted to change a clock signal of the processor device to therefore vary time localization of at least one processor device resource relative to the detected transient faults; and disable the processor device when the count of detected transient faults exceeds a threshold during the tracking interval. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22)
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23. A processor device, comprising:
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means for detecting transient faults within the processor device wherein the transient faults occur within the processor device; means for counting a number of the detected transient faults within a tracking interval; means for continuously devoting an amount of processor device resources to transient fault defense; means for adaptively adjusting a control parameter of the processor device in response to the transient faults to adaptively control the amount of processor device resources devoted to transient fault defense compared to an amount of processor device resources devoted to other operations, the control parameter adaptively adjusted to change a clock signal of the processor device to therefore vary time localization of at least one processor device resource relative to the detected transient faults; and disabling the processor device when the count of detected transient faults exceeds a threshold during the tracking interval. - View Dependent Claims (24, 25)
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26. A non-transitory machine-readable storage medium having one or more instructions which when executed by a processing circuit causes the processor device to:
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detect transient faults within the processor device wherein the transient faults occur within the processor device; count a number of the detected transient faults within a tracking interval; continuously devote an amount of processor device resources to transient fault defense; adaptively adjust a control parameter for transient fault defense of the processor device in response to the transient faults to adaptively control the amount of processor device resources devoted to transient fault defense compared to an amount of processor device resources devoted to other operations, the control parameter adaptively adjusted to change a clock signal of the processor device to therefore vary time localization of at least one processor device resource relative to the detected transient faults; and disable the processor device when the count of detected transient faults exceeds a threshold during the tracking interval. - View Dependent Claims (27, 28)
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29. A method operational on a processor device, comprising:
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detecting transient faults within the processor device wherein the transient faults occur within the processor device; continuously devoting an amount of processor device resources to detecting the transient faults; and adaptively adjusting a clock signal of the processor device in response to the transient faults to selectively gate clock cycles by selectively skipping clock cycles. - View Dependent Claims (30, 31, 32, 33, 34)
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35. A processor device, comprising:
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a communication interface; and a processing circuit coupled to the communication interface, the processing circuit configured to detect transient faults within the processor device wherein the transient faults occur within the processor device; count a number of the detected transient faults within a tracking interval; continuously devoting an amount of processor device resources to detecting the transient faults; adaptively adjust a clock signal of the processor device in response to the transient faults to selectively gate clock cycles by selectively skipping clock cycles; and disable the processor device when the number of the detected transient faults exceeds a threshold during the tracking interval. - View Dependent Claims (36, 37, 38, 39, 40)
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41. A processor device, comprising:
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means for detecting transient faults within the processor device wherein the transient faults occur within the processor device; means for counting a number of the detected transient faults within a tracking interval; means for continuously devoting an amount of processor device resources to detecting the transient faults; means for adaptively adjusting a clock signal of the processor device in response to the transient faults to selectively gate clock cycles by selectively skipping clock cycles; and means for disabling the processor device when the number of the detected transient faults exceeds a threshold during the tracking interval.
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42. A non-transitory machine-readable storage medium having one or more instructions which when executed by a processing circuit processor device causes the processing circuit processor device to:
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detect transient faults within the processor device wherein the transient faults occur within the processor device; count a number of the detected transient faults within a tracking interval; continuously devote an amount of processor device resources to detecting the transient faults; adaptively adjust a clock signal of the processor device in response to the transient faults to selectively gate clock cycles by selectively skipping clock cycles; and disable the processor device when the number of the detected transient faults exceeds a threshold during the tracking interval.
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Specification