On Mitigation of Side-Channel Attacks in 3D ICs: Decorrelating Thermal Patterns from Power and Activity

Abstract

Various side-channel attacks (SCAs) on ICs have been successfully demonstrated and also mitigated to some degree. In the context of 3D ICs, however, prior art has mainly focused on efficient implementations of classical SCA countermeasures. That is, SCAs tailored for up-and-coming 3D ICs have been overlooked so far. In this paper, we conduct such a novel study and focus on one of the most accessible and critical side channels: thermal leakage of activity and power patterns. We address the thermal leakage in 3D ICs early on during floorplanning, along with tailored extensions for power and thermal management. Our key idea is to carefully exploit the specifics of material and structural properties in 3D ICs, thereby decorrelating the thermal behaviour from underlying power and activity patterns. Most importantly, we discuss powerful SCAs and demonstrate how our open-source tool helps to mitigate them.