High-level synthesis-based watermarking using retinal biometrics

Abstract

The chapter describes a high-level synthesis (HLS) driven methodology for designing secure hardware intellectual property (IP) cores using retinal biometrics (Chaurasia and Sengupta, 2023a, 2023b). In this methodology, firstly, the retinal biometrics of the original IP vendor is captured, which is subsequently exploited for extracting unique retinal features and generating the retinal digital template. The generated retinal template (binarized) is then encoded into its corresponding hardware security constraints using IP vendor-specified encoding algorithm. Next, these generated secret constraints are covertly embedded into the design during the register allocation phase of the HLS framework. The embedding process results in the retinal signature implanted hardware IP core design at the register transfer level (RTL). These embedded, retinal biometric-driven encoded security constraints serve as digital evidence, fortifying the IP core design against piracy by providing a detective countermeasure. Thus, HLS-driven hardware security methodology based on retinal biometrics enables robust and seamless detective control against pirated versions of the IP design, thereby enabling integration of authentic designs into the end system (through isolation of pirated/fake versions, not containing authentic IP vendor security mark). The rest of the chapter has been organized as follows: Section 3.1 provides the introduction of the chapter

Section 3.2 outlines the benefits to both consumer and consumer electronics (CE) system designer

Section 3.3 encapsulates the key highlights of the chapter

Section 3.4 discusses prior similar works on biometrics and non-biometrics based hardware security

Section 3.5 delves into the realm of retinal biometrics-based hardware security and trust

Section 3.6 elucidates the process of embedding security constraints, demonstrated through a case study

Section 3.7 shows detection of pirated IPs using retinal biometric

Section 3.8 explores the security properties of retinal biometrics, emphasizing robust hardware security

Section 3.9 provides a detailed analysis and discussion

and Section 3.10 concludes the chapter by summarizing the chapter’s findings and implications. © The Institution of Engineering and Technology and its licensors 2024.