SimpliFI: Hardware Simulation of Embedded Software Fault Attacks

• Main Authors: Jacob Grycel, Patrick Schaumont
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2021-06-01
• Series: Cryptography
• Subjects: fault injection; software vulnerability evaluation; hardware simulation
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/2410-387X/5/2/15

Fault injection simulation on embedded software is typically captured using a high-level fault model that expresses fault behavior in terms of programmer-observable quantities. These fault models hide the true sensitivity of the underlying processor hardware to fault injection, and they are unable to correctly capture fault effects in the programmer-invisible part of the processor microarchitecture. We present SimpliFI, a simulation methodology to test fault attacks on embedded software using a hardware simulation of the processor running the software. We explain the purpose and advantage of SimpliFI, describe automation of the simulation framework, and apply SimpliFI on a BRISC-V embedded processor running an AES application.