lowRISC / lowRISC/opentitan

[kmac] Harden FIFO bypass control

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Dominant language
SystemVerilog
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Description

The new message FIFO features a bypass mode so shared messages can be sent directly to the hashing backend.

The control signal for this bypass functionality poses an attack surface as identified in https://github.com/lowRISC/opentitan/pull/30099#discussion_r3246440966.

@vogelpi proposed a mitigation in the same discussion (https://github.com/lowRISC/opentitan/pull/30099#discussion_r3246859593).

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

Research direction

Start with PR #30099 and the two linked discussion comments, then trace the KMAC message FIFO bypass control to the hashing backend. Implement the mitigation proposed by @vogelpi and verify that the bypass control no longer exposes the identified attack surface.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Domain
cryptography, embedded-iot, security
Issue type
Bug
Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Activity status
Active
Clarity
Needs clarification
Newbie friendliness
38/100

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