46 lines
4 KiB
TeX
46 lines
4 KiB
TeX
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\chapter*{Abstract}
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\adjustmtc
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\addcontentsline{toc}{chapter}{Abstract}
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In the past decades, cryptographic advancements and techniques like formal verification have steadily improved software
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security. Meanwhile, the field of hardware security has not kept pace. Research has made progress in subfields such as
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resilience to Side-Channel Attacks (SCA) and Physical Unclonable Functions (PUFs). However, the state of the art still
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often relies on microelectronic integration to achieve security by obscurity insted of more fundamental security
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guarantees. While effective, system-level tamper protection is only used in few devices such as Hardware Security
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Modules (HSMs) and card payment terminals. Due to the high cost and low performance of HSMs in particular, they remain
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relegated to niche applications such as Transport Layer Security (TLS) certificate issuance and payment data processing.
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In this thesis, we introduce the Inertial Hardware Security Module (IHSM), a new architecture for low-cost hardware
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security modules that provide high-level active tamper protection, while supporting computing payloads of much larger
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size, weight and power dissipation compared to conventional HSMs. In an IHSM, the costly and difficult to source
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tamper-sensing mesh of a conventional HSM is replaced by a mesh made from simple PCBs that is rotating at high speed
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around the payload. Since the mesh is rotating at high speed, it cannot be manipulated, and the security of conventional
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meshes created in bespoke manufacturing processes can be achieved using much simpler and less expensive construction
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techniques. We present the results of a survey of approximately 30 real world tamper sensing mesh implementations. Based
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on our findings, we deduce design criteria for secure meshes and contextualize our design. We further motivate the
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necessity of secure hardware by presenting an analysis of problematic aspects in the hardware security design of
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Germany's new national electronic health record system.
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To pave the way for practical implementations of IHSM technology, we present solutions to key engineering challenges in
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IHSM construction. We present a design and analysis of highly symmetric planar inductors for rotating wireless power
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transfer that improves self-resonant frequency by up to \qty{58}{\percent} and inductance by up to \qty{6.5}{\percent}
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in our tests. Complementing this research, we present a high-fidelity, low-cost monitoring system for security meshes
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that is based on the principles of Time-Domain Reflectometry (TDR), reaching \qty{184}{\pico\second} time resolution. We
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validate our system and find that it is able to reliably detect several classes of advanced physical attacks. We find
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that our system is sensitive enough to detect differences between identical copies of the same mesh, suggesting PUF-like
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properties.
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Applying IHSM technology, we analyse two use cases that are unlocked by the increased size and power dissipation
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capability of IHSMs. In the first analysis, an IHSM-secured relay node for Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) systems is
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proposed, enabling their practical implementation across arbitrary distances, which requires trusted relay stations due
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to fundamental physical limitations. In the study, IHSMs are adapted for such high-security QKD relays by securing the
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IHSM mesh passthrough with a secondary tamper-sensing mesh. In this setup, a bracket design is proposed that supports
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passing through optical fibers at low loss.
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The second proposed use case adapts an IHSM enclosure to the size, power and thermal dissipation requirements of a
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high-power server to support co-located secure Multiparty Computation (MPC) workloads. In practical MPC deployments,
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nodes are distributed across data centers to avoid a single point of failure for physical attacks. As a result,
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practical MPC deployments are limited by network bandwidth and latency constraints. Using IHSMs, physically secured MPC
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nodes can be deployed within the same data center, increasing bandwidth, reducing latency and unlocking a new
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performance spectrum.
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