Towards the Avoidance of Counterfeit Memory: Identifying the DRAM Origin Conference

Bahar Talukder, BMS, Menon, V, Ray, B et al. (2020). Towards the Avoidance of Counterfeit Memory: Identifying the DRAM Origin . 111-121. 10.1109/HOST45689.2020.9300125

cited authors

  • Bahar Talukder, BMS; Menon, V; Ray, B; Neal, T; Rahman, MT

abstract

  • Due to the globalization in the semiconductor supply chain, counterfeit dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) chips/modules have been spreading worldwide at an alarming rate. Deploying counterfeit DRAM modules into an electronic system can have severe consequences on security and reliability domains because of their sub-standard quality, poor performance, and shorter life span. Besides, studies suggest that a counterfeit DRAM can be more vulnerable to sophisticated attacks. However, detecting counterfeit DRAMs is very challenging because of their nature and ability to pass the initial testing. In this paper, we propose a technique to identify the DRAM origin (i.e., the origin of the manufacturer and the specification of individual DRAM) to detect and prevent counterfeit DRAM modules. A silicon evaluation shows that the proposed method reliably identifies off-the-shelf DRAM modules from three major manufacturers.

publication date

  • December 7, 2020

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

International Standard Book Number (ISBN) 13

start page

  • 111

end page

  • 121