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arXiv · 2309.05740

REVERSIM: An Open-Source Environment for the Controlled Study of Human Aspects in Hardware Reverse Engineering

Steffen Becker·René Walendy·Markus Weber·Carina Wiesen·Nikol Rummel·Christof Paar
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Abstract

Hardware Reverse Engineering (HRE) is a technique for analyzing integrated circuits. Experts employ HRE for security-critical tasks, like detecting Trojans or intellectual property violations, relying not only on their experience and customized tools but also on their cognitive abilities. In this work, we introduce ReverSim, a software environment that models key HRE subprocesses and integrates standardized cognitive tests. ReverSim enables quantitative studies with easier-to-recruit non-experts to uncover cognitive factors relevant to HRE. We empirically evaluated ReverSim in three studies. Semi-structured interviews with 14 HRE professionals confirmed its comparability to real-world HRE processes. Two online user studies with 170 novices and intermediates revealed effective differentiation of participant performance across a spectrum of difficulties, and correlations between participants' cognitive processing speed and task performance. ReverSim is available as open-source software, providing a robust platform for controlled experiments to assess cognitive processes in HRE, potentially opening new avenues for hardware protection.

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Steffen Becker, René Walendy, Markus Weber, Carina Wiesen, Nikol Rummel, Christof Paar. 2023-09-11. REVERSIM: An Open-Source Environment for the Controlled Study of Human Aspects in Hardware Reverse Engineering. https://doi.org/10.1145/3706598.3714160

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