research-article

Probable cause: the deanonymizing effects of approximate DRAM

Authors:

Daniel E. Holcomb,

Kevin FuAuthors Info & Claims

ISCA '15: Proceedings of the 42nd Annual International Symposium on Computer Architecture

Pages 604 - 615

https://doi.org/10.1145/2749469.2750419

Published: 13 June 2015 Publication History

Abstract

Approximate computing research seeks to trade-off the accuracy of computation for increases in performance or reductions in power consumption. The observation driving approximate computing is that many applications tolerate small amounts of error which allows for an opportunistic relaxation of guard bands (e.g., clock rate and voltage). Besides affecting performance and power, reducing guard bands exposes analog properties of traditionally digital components. For DRAM, one analog property exposed by approximation is the variability of memory cell decay times.

In this paper, we show how the differing cell decay times of approximate DRAM creates an error pattern that serves as a system identifying fingerprint. To validate this observation, we build an approximate memory platform and perform experiments that show that the fingerprint due to approximation is device dependent and resilient to changes in environment and level of approximation. To identify a DRAM chip given an approximate output, we develop a distance metric that yields a two-orders-of-magnitude difference in the distance between approximate results produced by the same DRAM chip and those produced by other DRAM chips. We use these results to create a mathematical model of approximate DRAM that we leverage to explore the end-to-end deanonymizing effects of approximate memory using a commodity system running an image manipulation program. The results from our experiment show that given less than 100 approximate outputs, the fingerprint for an approximate DRAM begins to converge to a single, machine identifying fingerprint.

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Cited By

Japa AMiskelly JCui YO'Neill MGu C(2024)A Novel Methodology for Processor based PUF in Approximate Computing2024 IEEE International Symposium on Circuits and Systems (ISCAS)10.1109/ISCAS58744.2024.10558354(1-5)Online publication date: 19-May-2024
https://doi.org/10.1109/ISCAS58744.2024.10558354
Frank FXiong WAnagnostopoulos NSchaller AArul TKoushanfar FKatzenbeisser SRührmair USzefer J(2023)Abusing Commodity DRAMs in IoT Devices to Remotely Spy on TemperatureIEEE Transactions on Information Forensics and Security10.1109/TIFS.2023.327125218(2991-3005)Online publication date: 1-Jan-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1109/TIFS.2023.3271252
Smith KViszlai JSeifert LBaker JSzefer JChong F(2023)Fast Fingerprinting of Cloud-based NISQ Quantum Computers2023 IEEE International Symposium on Hardware Oriented Security and Trust (HOST)10.1109/HOST55118.2023.10133778(1-12)Online publication date: 1-May-2023
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Index Terms

Probable cause: the deanonymizing effects of approximate DRAM
1. Hardware
  1. Hardware validation
  2. Integrated circuits
    1. Semiconductor memory
      1. Dynamic memory

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Published In

cover image ACM Conferences

ISCA '15: Proceedings of the 42nd Annual International Symposium on Computer Architecture

June 2015

768 pages

ISBN:9781450334020

DOI:10.1145/2749469

General Chair:
Debbie Marr
Intel
,
Program Chair:
David Albonesi
Cornell

ACM SIGARCH Computer Architecture News Volume 43, Issue 3S
ISCA'15
June 2015
745 pages
ISSN:0163-5964
DOI:10.1145/2872887
Editor:
Doug DeGroot
acm dot org
Issue’s Table of Contents

Copyright © 2015 ACM.

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Publication History

Published: 13 June 2015

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ISCA '15: The 42nd Annual International Symposium on Computer Architecture

June 13 - 17, 2015

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Overall Acceptance Rate 543 of 3,203 submissions, 17%

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Cited By

Japa AMiskelly JCui YO'Neill MGu C(2024)A Novel Methodology for Processor based PUF in Approximate Computing2024 IEEE International Symposium on Circuits and Systems (ISCAS)10.1109/ISCAS58744.2024.10558354(1-5)Online publication date: 19-May-2024
https://doi.org/10.1109/ISCAS58744.2024.10558354
Frank FXiong WAnagnostopoulos NSchaller AArul TKoushanfar FKatzenbeisser SRührmair USzefer J(2023)Abusing Commodity DRAMs in IoT Devices to Remotely Spy on TemperatureIEEE Transactions on Information Forensics and Security10.1109/TIFS.2023.327125218(2991-3005)Online publication date: 1-Jan-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1109/TIFS.2023.3271252
Smith KViszlai JSeifert LBaker JSzefer JChong F(2023)Fast Fingerprinting of Cloud-based NISQ Quantum Computers2023 IEEE International Symposium on Hardware Oriented Security and Trust (HOST)10.1109/HOST55118.2023.10133778(1-12)Online publication date: 1-May-2023
https://doi.org/10.1109/HOST55118.2023.10133778
Japa AZhang JLiu WGu C(2023)Processor based Intrinsic PUF Design for Approximate Computing: Faith or Reality?2023 Asian Hardware Oriented Security and Trust Symposium (AsianHOST)10.1109/AsianHOST59942.2023.10409381(1-6)Online publication date: 13-Dec-2023
https://doi.org/10.1109/AsianHOST59942.2023.10409381
Tian SGiechaskiel IXiong WSzefer J(2023)Fingerprinting and Mapping Cloud FPGA InfrastructuresSecurity of FPGA-Accelerated Cloud Computing Environments10.1007/978-3-031-45395-3_9(239-272)Online publication date: 18-Sep-2023
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Xu QArafin MQu G(2022)An Approximate Memory Based Defense Against Model Inversion Attacks to Neural NetworksIEEE Transactions on Emerging Topics in Computing10.1109/TETC.2022.317998010:4(1733-1745)Online publication date: 1-Oct-2022
https://doi.org/10.1109/TETC.2022.3179980
Tian SXiong WGiechaskiel IRasmussen KSzefer JNeuendorffer SShannon L(2020)Fingerprinting Cloud FPGA InfrastructuresProceedings of the 2020 ACM/SIGDA International Symposium on Field-Programmable Gate Arrays10.1145/3373087.3375322(58-64)Online publication date: 23-Feb-2020
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3373087.3375322
Xiong WSchaller AKatzenbeisser SSzefer J(2020)Software Protection Using Dynamic PUFsIEEE Transactions on Information Forensics and Security10.1109/TIFS.2019.295578815(2053-2068)Online publication date: 2020
https://doi.org/10.1109/TIFS.2019.2955788
Liu WGu CO'Neill MQu GMontuschi PLombardi F(2020)Security in Approximate Computing and Approximate Computing for Security: Challenges and OpportunitiesProceedings of the IEEE10.1109/JPROC.2020.3030121108:12(2214-2231)Online publication date: Dec-2020
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Xiong WAnagnostopoulos NSchaller AKatzenbeisser SSzefer J(2019)Spying on Temperature using DRAM2019 Design, Automation & Test in Europe Conference & Exhibition (DATE)10.23919/DATE.2019.8714882(13-18)Online publication date: Mar-2019
https://doi.org/10.23919/DATE.2019.8714882
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