Power Measurement Based Code Classification for Programmable Logic Circuits

Traditional cyber security and monitoring systems rely on prior knowledge about possible attacks, which renders them ineffective against novel schemes (zero-day attacks). Moreover, intruders are targeting different types of devices (e.g. Programmable Logic Circuits/Controllers (PLC)) for which traditional security systems are unavailable. A solution to this problem is provided by analysis of the power consumption behavior of a system and relating power consumption characteristics to behavior internal to the device. In this work, a detection system is developed which is capable of discriminating between different codes executed by the target device, a PLC, based on passive measurement at the external power supply point; this is unlike previous methods, which relied on a specific sensor located directly over the chip. Results show that for a PLC, which is executing four different codes, the classification system can discriminate with very high accuracy (> 99%).