[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"doc-detail-82728-en":3,"doc-seo-82728-105":29,"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":91},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",{"doc_id":7,"user_id":8,"nickname":9,"user_avatar":10,"doc_module":4,"category_id":11,"category_name":12,"doc_title":13,"doc_description":14,"doc_content":15,"file_id":16,"file_url":17,"file_type":18,"file_size":19,"view_count":20,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":20,"is_downloadable":20,"audit_status":20,"page_count":21,"language":22,"language_code":23,"site_id":24,"html_lang":23,"table_of_contents":25,"faqs":26,"seo_title":13,"seo_description":14,"update_tm":27,"read_time":28},82728,4398048949847,"Eliana","https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/avatar/400002536579ef2da7f?_k=1778318612642679267",8,"Research & Report","Security Analysis for SCONE Logic Locking","SCONE [DAC’25] expands a logic locking interface by adding encoded inputs derived from original primary inputs, offering two realizations: with-ES (encoding implemented in hardware inside the locked netlist) and without-ES (an encoded interface exposed directly with increased width). Both realizations are shown vulnerable, with distinct failure modes. The without-ES case collapses the valid encoded-input space to an unchanged dimensionality under deterministic linear encoding, nullifying nominal brute-force gains. The with-ES case enables polynomial-time white-box recovery of the encoder relation with 100% exact recovery, plus black-box dimensionality certification. Experiments validate these findings on ISCAS-85, ITC-99, and an ARM Cortex-M0 RTL benchmark.","Security Analysis for SCONE Logic Locking  \nAkashdeep Saha†, Mohammed Nabeel‡, Johann Knechtel†, Michail Maniatakos†, Ozgur Sinanoglu†  \n†New York University Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi  \nUnited Arab Emirates  \n‡New York University Tandon School of Engineering, New York  \nUnited States  \n{as19360,mtn2,johann,michail.maniatakos, [ozgursin}@nyu.edu](ozgursin}@nyu.edu)  \narXiv :2607 .03288v 1 [ cs .CR] 3 Jul 2026  \nAbstract  \nSCONE [DAC’25] expands a logic locking interface with additional encoded inputs derived from the original primary inputs, and admits two realizations: a with-ES variant, where the critical encoding stage is implemented in hardware, and a without-ES variant, where the locked design directly exposes an encoded interface of width 􀀽 + 􀀼 . We show that both realizations are vulnerable, but for different reasons. For the without-ES variant, we prove that, when the added encoded inputs are deterministic linear functions of the original inputs, the valid encoded-input space remains 􀀽-dimensional despite the nominal expansion to 􀀽+􀀼 inputs. Hence, the widened interface does not yield 􀀼 additional or independent brute-force dimensions. For the with-ES variant, we present a polynomial-time white-box attack that exactly recovers the added-input count and the implemented linear encoding relation from the locked netlist, achieving 100% recovery over all evaluated instances. We also develop a blackbox procedure that certifies the same dimensionality collapse from valid encoded-input samples without reconstructing the hidden encoder. Experiments on ISCAS-85 and ITC-99 benchmarks validate both results, and we further demonstrate exact white-box recovery on an ARM Cortex-M0 RTL benchmark. Finally, we propose a lightweight non-linear mitigation and show that it does not exhibit the vulnerabilities identified in this paper under all representative attack sets considered in SCONE.  \n1 Introduction  \nLogic locking (LL) is a widely studied hardware security technique for protecting integrated circuits against a variety of malicious activities in an untrusted supply-chain setting. Over the last decade, LL research has shifted toward SAT-resilient constructions, motivated by the vulnerability of conventional schemes to oracle-guided deobfuscation. Among these, SFLL-style schemes [13, 18, 26] have been especially influential because they combine functional corruption with restore logic to harden the design against classical SAT [22] and removal attacks [25] .  \nAt the same time, a central lesson from the LL literature is that resistance to SAT-based attacks does not imply resistance to implementation-level structural and functional analysis [2, 7, 9, 20] . A sequence of white-box, functional, and learning-based attacks has shown that protection logic often leaves exploitable traces in the synthesized netlist. This gap between construction-level rationale and implementation-level behavior is particularly important for recent provably secure logic locking schemes.  \nSCONE [6] is a recent SFLL-style logic locking scheme that augments a circuit with additional encoded inputs derived from the original primary inputs. It admits two realizations. In the with-ES  \nrealization, the encoding stage (ES) is implemented in hardware and remains part of the locked netlist. In the without-ES realization, the encoding is applied outside the locked design, and the netlist directly exposes an encoded interface of width 􀀽 + 􀀼 . These two realizations lead to different security questions and, as we show in this paper, to different vulnerabilities.  \nFor the without-ES realization, SCONE’s security rationale is tied to the nominal expansion of the visible interface from 􀀽 to 􀀽 + 􀀼 inputs. We show that this argument does not hold when the added encoded inputs are deterministic linear functions of the original inputs: the valid encoded-input set remains confined to an 􀀽-dimensional subspace of the nominal (􀀽 + 􀀼)-dimensional space interface. Thus, the visible inte","cbCaicRPBUPDCZ0w","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaicRPBUPDCZ0w","pdf",1696245,1,9,"English","en",105,"# Introduction\n## Logic locking background\n## SCONE variants and security rationale\n# Security findings\n## Without-ES dimensionality collapse\n## With-ES exact encoder recovery\n# Mitigation and evaluation\n## Non-linear mitigation\n## Experimental validation on benchmarks","[{\"question\":\"What two realizations of SCONE logic locking are studied?\",\"answer\":\"SCONE has a with-ES variant where the encoding stage is implemented in hardware and remains in the locked netlist, and a without-ES variant where encoding is applied outside the locked design and the netlist exposes an encoded interface of increased width.\"},{\"question\":\"Why does the without-ES variant fail to provide extra brute-force security?\",\"answer\":\"When the added encoded inputs are deterministic linear functions of the original inputs, the valid encoded-input space stays confined to an 􀀽-dimensional subspace, so the nominal interface expansion does not add 􀀼 independent brute-force dimensions.\"},{\"question\":\"What is the main result for the with-ES variant?\",\"answer\":\"A polynomial-time white-box attack exactly recovers the added-input count and the implemented linear encoding relation from the locked netlist, achieving 100% recovery on evaluated instances.\"}]",1784182535,23,{"code":4,"msg":30,"data":31},"ok",{"site_id":24,"language":23,"slug":32,"title":13,"keywords":33,"description":14,"schema_data":34,"social_meta":86,"head_meta":88,"extra_data":90,"updated_unix":27},"security-analysis-for-scone-logic-locking","",{"@graph":35,"@context":85},[36,53,68],{"@type":37,"itemListElement":38},"BreadcrumbList",[39,43,47,50],{"item":40,"name":41,"@type":42,"position":20},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":44,"name":45,"@type":42,"position":46},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/","Document",2,{"item":48,"name":12,"@type":42,"position":49},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/",3,{"item":51,"name":13,"@type":42,"position":52},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/security-analysis-for-scone-logic-locking/82728/",4,{"url":51,"name":13,"@type":54,"author":55,"headline":13,"publisher":57,"fileFormat":60,"inLanguage":23,"description":14,"dateModified":61,"datePublished":62,"encodingFormat":60,"isAccessibleForFree":63,"interactionStatistic":64},"DigitalDocument",{"name":9,"@type":56},"Person",{"url":40,"name":58,"@type":59},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-07-24","2026-07-16",true,{"@type":65,"interactionType":66,"userInteractionCount":20},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":67},"ViewAction",{"@type":69,"mainEntity":70},"FAQPage",[71,77,81],{"name":72,"@type":73,"acceptedAnswer":74},"What two realizations of SCONE logic locking are studied?","Question",{"text":75,"@type":76},"SCONE has a with-ES variant where the encoding stage is implemented in hardware and remains in the locked netlist, and a without-ES variant where encoding is applied outside the locked design and the netlist exposes an encoded interface of increased width.","Answer",{"name":78,"@type":73,"acceptedAnswer":79},"Why does the without-ES variant fail to provide extra brute-force security?",{"text":80,"@type":76},"When the added encoded inputs are deterministic linear functions of the original inputs, the valid encoded-input space stays confined to an 􀀽-dimensional subspace, so the nominal interface expansion does not add 􀀼 independent brute-force dimensions.",{"name":82,"@type":73,"acceptedAnswer":83},"What is the main result for the with-ES variant?",{"text":84,"@type":76},"A polynomial-time white-box attack exactly recovers the added-input count and the implemented linear encoding relation from the locked netlist, achieving 100% recovery on evaluated instances.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":51,"og:type":87,"og:title":13,"og:site_name":58,"og:description":14},"article",{"robots":89,"canonical":51},"index,follow",{"doc_id":7,"site_id":24},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":92},[93,97,101,105,110,115,120,123,127,130,134],{"id":20,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":45,"category_name":94,"show_sort_weight":95,"slug":96},"Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":46,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":45,"category_name":98,"show_sort_weight":99,"slug":100},"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":52,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":45,"category_name":102,"show_sort_weight":103,"slug":104},"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":106,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":45,"category_name":107,"show_sort_weight":108,"slug":109},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":111,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":45,"category_name":112,"show_sort_weight":113,"slug":114},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":116,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":45,"category_name":117,"show_sort_weight":118,"slug":119},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":11,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":45,"category_name":12,"show_sort_weight":121,"slug":122},30,"research-report",{"id":21,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":45,"category_name":124,"show_sort_weight":125,"slug":126},"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":125,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":45,"category_name":128,"show_sort_weight":125,"slug":129},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":131,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":45,"category_name":132,"show_sort_weight":131,"slug":133},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":135,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":45,"category_name":136,"show_sort_weight":106,"slug":137},19,"General","general"]