Access control and security analysis of shared accelerators with hardware-level scheduling

Research output: Contribution to journalResearch articleContributedpeer-review

Abstract

Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) have increasingly become important technical support for complex computing requirements in the embedded domain due to their configurability and high performance. FPGA virtualization enables multiple tasks or operating systems to share hardware resources effectively. However, the possibility of resource-sharing also brings potential computing security risks. Especially when multiple software tasks share limited hardware resources such as accelerators with the same function, access control of hardware resources and security analysis are essential. This work explores the security robustness of a system consisting of a hardware-level scheduler that can manage hardware tasks in both spatial and temporal dimensions. It employs a lightweight threat model and systematically emulates attacks. The result shows that the hardware-level scheduler with access control successfully mitigates tampering threats and prevents denial of service attacks. These advantages demonstrate the significant potential of hardware-level access control and scheduling for embedded domains, enhancing computational efficiency and security robustness.

Details

Original languageEnglish
Article number105186
JournalMicroprocessors and Microsystems
Early online dateJul 2025
Publication statusPublished - Jul 2025
Peer-reviewedYes

External IDs

ORCID /0000-0003-2571-8441/work/190132408
ORCID /0000-0002-6311-3251/work/190134165
Mendeley e6b01979-07b6-3ad5-8166-78616201ae3d

Keywords

Keywords

  • FPGA virtualization, Hardware task scheduler, MMIO access control, Security robustness