Memory Authenticated Encryption Eengine for a RISC-V processor

Overview & Synopsis

In this paper, we present the Memory Authenticated Encryption Engine (MAEE) hardware countermeasure to ensure the confidentiality and authenticity of data in RAM and the associated interconnect bus. Using the Subterranean 2.0 authenticated encryption algorithm, data used by a processor is secured at the output of cache memory, and stored in memory as chunks, containing encrypted data and metadata for authenticity verification. The MAEE provides protection against attacks targeting the memory and its bus, such as Rowhammer, fault injections or side-channel attacks. We are also evaluating the performance of this countermeasure, by associating it with the RISC-V CVA6 application core.