{"id":{"repo_id":"vt","oai_identifier":"oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/34063"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/vt/oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/34063","repository":{"repo_id":"vt","name":"Virginia Tech","base_url":"https://vtechworks.lib.vt.edu/oai/request"},"display":{"title":"A Key Management Architecture for Securing Off-Chip Data Transfers on an FPGA","abstract":"Data security is becoming ever more important in embedded and portable electronic devices. The sophistication of the analysis techniques used by attackers is amazingly advanced. Digital devices' external interfaces to memory and communications interfaces to other digital devices are vulnerable to malicious probing and examination. A hostile observer might be able to glean important details of a device's design from such an interface analysis. Defensive measures for protecting a device must therefore be even more sophisticated and robust. This thesis presents an architecture that acts as a secure wrapper around an embedded application on a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA). The architecture includes functional units that serve to authenticate a user over a secure serial interface, create a key with multiple layers of security, and encrypt an external memory interface using that key. In this way, the wrapper protects all of the digital interfaces of the embedded application from external analysis. Cryptographic methods built into the system include an RSA-related secure key exchange, the Secure Hash Algorithm, a certificate storage system, and the Data Encryption Standard algorithm in counter mode. The principles behind the encrypted external memory interface and the secure authentication interface can be adjusted as needed to form a secure wrapper for a wide variety of embedded FPGA applications.","abstract_html":"Data security is becoming ever more important in embedded and portable electronic devices. The sophistication of the analysis techniques used by attackers is amazingly advanced. Digital devices' external interfaces to memory and communications interfaces to other digital devices are vulnerable to malicious probing and examination. A hostile observer might be able to glean important details of a device's design from such an interface analysis. Defensive measures for protecting a device must therefore be even more sophisticated and robust. This thesis presents an architecture that acts as a secure wrapper around an embedded application on a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA). The architecture includes functional units that serve to authenticate a user over a secure serial interface, create a key with multiple layers of security, and encrypt an external memory interface using that key. In this way, the wrapper protects all of the digital interfaces of the embedded application from external analysis. Cryptographic methods built into the system include an RSA-related secure key exchange, the Secure Hash Algorithm, a certificate storage system, and the Data Encryption Standard algorithm in counter mode. The principles behind the encrypted external memory interface and the secure authentication interface can be adjusted as needed to form a secure wrapper for a wide variety of embedded FPGA applications.","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Graf, Jonathan"],"institution":"Virginia Tech","degree_name":"Master of Science","degree_level":"masters","degree_discipline":"Electrical and Computer Engineering","degree_department":"Electrical and Computer Engineering","school":null,"contributors":[],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":["Athanas, Peter M."],"committee_members":["Tront, Joseph G.","Jones, Mark T."],"year":2004,"date_issued":"2004-06-18","date_published":"2004-06-18","updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:18:55Z","subjects":["Security","Encryption","Amanuet","Key Management","Field programmable gate arrays","Wrapper"],"languages":[],"rights":["In Copyright"],"rights_urls":["http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/"],"identifier_entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier.other","label":"Dc Identifier Other","values":["etd-07192004-102951"],"render_values":[{"text":"etd-07192004-102951","href":null,"code":true}]}]},"links":{"outbound_url":"http://hdl.handle.net/10919/34063","outbound_label":"Handle","outbound_source":"dc:identifier.uri"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor.committeechair","label":"Committee Chair","values":["Athanas, Peter M."]},{"key":"dc:contributor.committeemember","label":"Committee Member","values":["Tront, Joseph G.","Jones, Mark T."]},{"key":"dc:contributor.department","label":"Department","values":["Electrical and Computer Engineering"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Graf, Jonathan"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date.accessioned","label":"Dc Date Accessioned","values":["2014-03-14T20:41:38Z"]},{"key":"dc:date.available","label":"Dc Date Available","values":["2014-03-14T20:41:38Z","2005-08-04"]},{"key":"dc:date.issued","label":"Date","values":["2004-06-18"]},{"key":"dc:publisher","label":"Institution","values":["Virginia Tech"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["Thesis"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["Electrical and Computer Engineering"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["masters"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Master of Science"]},{"key":"thesis:institution_name","label":"Thesis Institution Name","values":["Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Security","Encryption","Amanuet","Key Management","Field programmable gate arrays","Wrapper"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:rights","label":"Dc Rights","values":["In Copyright"]},{"key":"dc:rights.uri","label":"Rights URI","values":["http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier.other","label":"Dc Identifier Other","values":["etd-07192004-102951"]},{"key":"dc:identifier.uri","label":"Identifier URI","values":["http://hdl.handle.net/10919/34063"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["Data security is becoming ever more important in embedded and portable electronic devices. 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