Obfuscation-Enhanced Memory Encryption for Non-Volatile Main Memory
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Solution Overview
Problem
Non-volatile memory used as main memory introduces security vulnerabilities due to retained data susceptibility to attacks like bus-snooping and physical probing, and existing encryption methods incur high design complexity and latency overhead.
Innovation Solution
Implementing obfuscation-enhanced memory encryption by generating spurious transactions and using a controller to encrypt and decrypt data, which includes autonomously initiating memory transactions and adjusting the rate of spurious transactions to balance security and latency, utilizing encryption algorithms like AES and error correction circuits.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If data encryption is implemented to protect non-volatile memory, then security against bus-snooping and physical probing attacks is improved, but design complexity and latency overhead increase
Solution Approach 1:
The memory access pattern is segmented into legitimate transactions and spurious transactions. The controller selectively injects spurious transactions at specific rates to obfuscate the memory access pattern, thereby protecting against bus-snooping attacks without requiring full memory encryption of all data, thus reducing design complexity
Solution Approach 2:
The controller acts as an intermediary between the host and memory, injecting spurious transactions to mask the real memory access pattern. This intermediary approach protects memory without requiring encryption hardware in every memory cell, reducing overall design complexity
2Reliability
If data encryption is implemented to protect non-volatile memory, then security against bus-snooping and physical probing attacks is improved, but transactional latency increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system dynamically adjusts the rate of spurious transaction injection based on security threats and performance requirements. By making the obfuscation rate adjustable and adaptive, the system can minimize latency impact while maintaining adequate security protection against bus-snooping attacks
Solution Approach 2:
Spurious transactions are injected periodically at controlled rates rather than continuously interfering with all memory operations. This periodic injection approach maintains security while allowing legitimate transactions to proceed with minimal delay, reducing overall transactional latency
Data Source
AI summary
The present disclosure includes apparatuses and methods for obfuscation-enhanced memory encryption. An example method comprises performing a write operation, wherein the write operation includes transmitting a number of write transactions received from a host along with a number of spurious transactions to a memory, and wherein the number of spurious transactions are transmitted at a particular rate among the number of received write transactions.