SECURE PLATFORM FOR ICT SYSTEMS ROOTED AT THE SILICON MANUFACTURING PROCESS

Project Information

SPIRS

Grant agreement ID: 952622

DOI

10.3030/952622

Project closed

EC signature date 14 July 2021

Start date 1 October 2021

End date 30 September 2024

Funded under

• INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Leadership in enabling and industrial technologies - Information and Communication Technologies (ICT)

Total cost

€ 5 041 091,25

EU contribution

€ 5 041 091,25

Coordinated by

AGENCIA ESTATAL CONSEJO SUPERIOR DE INVESTIGACIONES CIENTIFICAS
Spain

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - SPIRS (SECURE PLATFORM FOR ICT SYSTEMS ROOTED AT THE SILICON MANUFACTURING PROCESS)

Reporting period: 2023-04-01 to 2024-09-30

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

IoT and ubiquitous/pervasive computing are shaping our world where smart devices enter every aspect of our everyday life. The evolution of our interconnected society brings multiple layers of cloud, edge computing, and Internet of Things (IoT) platforms that continuously interact with each other. The boom of digitalization demands infrastructures to develop functional engineering solutions in a short time. However, advanced security and privacy-enhancing technologies are required to build a more secure digital world.

The “Secure Platform for ICT Systems Rooted at the Silicon Manufacturing Process” (SPIRS) EU-funded project addresses innovative approaches to provide security and data privacy to future Information and Communications Technology (ICT) elements. This project encompasses the complete design of a SPIRS platform, which integrates a dedicated hardware Root of Trust (RoT) and a RISC-V processor core with the capability of offering a full suite of security services. The hardware RoT in SPIRS is the source of trust for the entire system that is built over it. The security of software components (execution environment, boot process, applications) relies on identifiers, random numbers, and cryptographic functions that are provided by the RoT. Furthermore, the potentiality of the SPIRS platform is leveraged to support privacy respectful solution and remote attestation mechanisms to enable trusted communication channels across 5G infrastructures and the respective management domains. Therefore, the main goal of the SPIRS project is to establish chains of trust rooted in the silicon manufacturing process for ICT systems, and apply them in improving the supply chain for networked infrastructures.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

All the tasks have been developed following the initial work plan detailed in the Description of Action (DoA). This is a summary of the work performed at the end of the project per each technical Work Package (WP):

1. WP2: A final design of the Hardware Root-of-Trust (RoT) were provided at Month 24 (M24). A demo to show its correct functionality is described in Deliverable D2.2. Enhanced versions of the HW RoT componenets with countermeasures against side-channel and fault-injection attacks.
2. WP3: A customized Trusted Execution Environment (TEE) with a firmware TPMis provided at M24. A final prototype of the TEE was ready at M24 as described in the deliverable D3.3. A Secure and Measured Booting procedure using the crypto primitives inside the HW RoT. Development of a library to bear privacy respectful audit trails and remote attestation protocols.
3. WP4: A final Trusted Network Environment for Devices (TNED) framework including software design highlighting the security and privacy aspects were provided at M33 (deliverable D4.2).
4. WP5: A final delivery of the SPIRS platform with all components of the RoT and a RISC-V core at M35 (deliverable D5.3). A second ASIC tapeout of a lightweight RoT was ready at M33 (deliverable D5.4).
5. WP6: Validation activities of the main SPIRS outcomes in three different use cases (two in Industry 4.0 and one in 5G) according to the validation plan at M35 (deliverable D6.2).

Four demonstrators linked to deliverables D2.2 D3.3 D4.2 and D5.3 are available to show the final results of the project in their respective technical work packages WP2, WP3, WP4, and WP5.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

This is a list of potential impacts:
Impact 1: Improved market opportunities for the EU vendors of security components.
Impact 2: Increased trust both by developers using/integrating ICT components and by the end-users of IT systems and services.
Impact 3: Protect the privacy of citizens and trustworthiness of ICT.
Impact 4: Acceleration of the development and implementation of certification processes.
Impact 5: Advanced cybersecurity products and services will be developed improving trust in the Digital Single Market.
Impact 6: The use of more harmonized certification schemes will increase the business cases for cybersecurity services as they will become more reliable.
Impact 7: Validation platforms will provide assessments with less effort compared with nowadays and assure a better compliance with relevant regulations and standards.

To achieve the above-mentioned impacts, the SPIRS project offers:
1. Hardware-plus-software integrated security mechanisms supporting different scenarios (impact 1).
2. Applicability to real security solutions (impact 1).
3. Primitives for integrated hardware-software security by design (impact 2).
4. Integrity verification of different connected devices and ICT services (impact 2).
5. Auditing enablers availability (impact 3).
6. Privacy regulatory compliance (impact 3).
7. Enablers for agile security certification (impact 4).
8. New connected device and service enablers (impact 5).
9. Analysis of license terms (impact 5).
10. Business models for secure connected devices and new cybersecurity services (impact 6).
11. Definition and adoption of open source and use of standards interfaces (impact 7).

Integration into network infrastructures with SPIRS solutions

Schematic of Use Case 1 in SPIRS

Hardware components of the SPIRS platform

Data flow in the customized Trusted Execution Environment in SPIRS

Schematic of Use Case 2 in SPIRS

Block diagram of the SPIRS platform

Schematic of Use Case 3 in SPIRS