Revisiting Logic Encryption

Rupesh Raj Karn; Lakshmi Likhitha Mankali; Zeng Wang; Saideep Sreekumar; Prithwish Basu Roy; Ozgur Sinanoglu; Lilas Alrahis; Johann Knechtel

arXiv · 2512.00833

Revisiting Logic Encryption

Rupesh Raj Karn·Lakshmi Likhitha Mankali·Zeng Wang·Saideep Sreekumar·Prithwish Basu Roy·Ozgur Sinanoglu·Lilas Alrahis·Johann Knechtel

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Abstract

Modern circuits face various threats like reverse engineering, theft of intellectual property (IP), side-channel attacks, etc. Here, we present a novel approach for IP protection based on logic encryption (LE). Unlike established schemes for logic locking, our work obfuscates the circuit's structure and functionality by encoding and encrypting the logic itself. We devise an end-to-end method for practical LE implementation based on standard cryptographic algorithms, key-bit randomization, simple circuit design techniques, and system-level synthesis operations, all in a correct-by-construction manner. Our extensive analysis demonstrates the remarkable efficacy of our scheme, outperforming prior art against a range of oracle-less attacks covering crucial threat vectors, all with lower design overheads. We provide a full open-source release.

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Rupesh Raj Karn, Lakshmi Likhitha Mankali, Zeng Wang, Saideep Sreekumar, Prithwish Basu Roy, Ozgur Sinanoglu, Lilas Alrahis, Johann Knechtel. 2025-11-30. Revisiting Logic Encryption. https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.00833

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