Fine-Grained Access Management in Reconfigurable Scan Networks

Abstract

Modern very large scale integration designs incorporate a high amount of instrumentation that supports post-silicon validation and debug, volume test and diagnosis, as well as in-field system monitoring and maintenance. Reconfigurable scan architectures, as allowed by the novel IEEE Std 1149.1-2013 (JTAG) and IEEE Std 1687-2014 [Internal JTAG (IJTAG)], emerge as a scalable mechanism for access to such on-chip instruments. While the on-chip instrumentation is crucial for meeting quality, dependability, and time-to-market goals, it is prone to abuse and threatens system safety and security. A secure access management method is mandatory to assure that critical instruments be accessible to authorized entities only. This paper presents a novel protection method for fine-grained access management in complex reconfigurable scan networks based on a challenge-response authentication protocol. The target scan network is extended with an authorization instrument and secure segment insertion bits that together control the accessibility of individual instruments. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first fine-grained access management scheme that scales well with the number of protected instruments and offers a high level of security. Compared with recent state-of-the-art techniques, this scheme is more favorable with respect to implementation cost, performance overhead, and provided security level.