REPQC: Reverse Engineering and Backdooring Hardware Accelerators for Post-quantum Cryptography
2026-03-24 , Lecture Hall

Significant research efforts have been dedicated to designing cryptographic algorithms that are quantum-resistant. The motivation is clear: robust quantum computers, once available, may render current cryptographic standards vulnerable. Thus, we need new Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC) algorithms, and, due to the nature and inherent complexity of such algorithms, there is also a demand to accelerate them in hardware. In this talk, we show that PQC hardware accelerators can be backdoored by two different adversaries located in the chip supply chain. We propose REPQC, a sophisticated reverse engineering algorithm that can be employed to confidently identify hashing operations (i.e., Keccak) within the PQC accelerator - the location of which serves as an anchor for finding secret information to be leaked. From there, adversaries can mount diverse attacks, including backdoors and hardware trojans. The talk concludes by affirming that we have to be mindful of existing threats, even for future deployment.


Topics: Netlist Reverse Engineering Techniques, Hardware Trojan Design and Detection, Other (please specify below) Other topic:

PQC

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Samuel Pagliarini received his PhD from Telecom ParisTech, Paris, France, in 2013. He has held research positions with the University of Bristol, Bristol, UK, and Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, USA. From 2019 to 2023, he led the Centre for Hardware Security at Tallinn University of Technology in Tallinn, Estonia. He is currently a professor at Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, USA. His research focuses on security aspects of chip design.