Recommendations for a radically secure ISA

Abstract

The rising number of attacks targeting processors at micro-architecture level encourages more research on hardware level solutions. In this position paper, we specify a new RV32S “secure” instruction setarchitecture (ISA) derived from the RV32I RISC-V ISA. We propose modifications in the ISA to prevent timing side-channels, strengthen control flow integrity and ensure micro-architectural state isolation. The goal is to provide a new minimal hardware/software approach through which software attacks exploiting hardware vulnerabilities can be circumvented.

Publication
In the Fourth Workshop on Computer Architecture Research with RISC-V
Date
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