InterConFuzz: A Fuzzing-based Comprehensive NoC Verification Framework

Security verification of Network-on-Chip (NoC) systems is essential due to their intricate and high-concurrency structures. Traditional methods often fail to cover all scenarios or scale effectively, leading to prolonged verification and overlooked vulnerabilities. Our proposed solution, InterConFuzz, a hybrid hardware fuzzing technique, uses symbolic execution for extensive coverage. Developed on Universal Verification Methodology (UVM), InterConFuzz discovered five security flaws in the NoC architecture of the OpenTitan SoC-surpassing existing techniques by three-while reducing memory and computational needs by 24.4% and 29.5%, respectively. Furthermore, InterConFuzz furnished comparable functional coverage compared to existing NoC fuzzing approaches, proving its efficiency and robustness.