Understanding security certification and how analog IP can help

This Agile Analog blog post outlines the security certification process and the impact of implementing analog anti-tamper solutions. With new security measures such as the EU’s Cyber Resilience Act (CRA) regulations becoming fully enforced in 2027, there is increasing interest in security certification and the analog IP that companies can use to detect and prevent security attacks.

Security certification levels

The Common Criteria for Information Technology Security, known simply as Common Criteria (CC), is the International standard (ISO/IEC 15408) for the security evaluation and certification of IT products. The objective of CC is to highlight IT security weaknesses. There are several levels of vulnerability assurance outlined as part of the EAL (Evaluation Assurance Level), and the AVA_VAN (Vulnerability Assessment / Vulnerability Analysis) requirements. Essentially, the higher the AVA_VAN level, the higher the level of confidence that the device can resist security attacks attempted by an experienced, professional hacker. Despite the fact that not all CC schemes are the same across Europe, Asia and the US, Common Criteria Recognition Agreements (CCRAs) are in place.

There are clear evaluation parameters for each security certification level, from basic functionality tests to rigorous verification processes. CC AVA_VAN requirements, levels 3 to 5, include robust vulnerability assessments, penetration testing and modeling of possible attack routes. The highest level is AVA_VAN.5, indicating the ability to stop hackers with a high security attack potential.

Security attack potential

There is a different attack potential for each AVA_VAN level. In the JIL (Joint Interpretation Library) scoring system, at level 3, the attack potential is rated as Enhanced-Basic. See table graphic below.

This is a range of values from 21-24 and is the sum of the identification and exploitation phases of a specific security attack. See table graphic below.

To reach the level 3 requirement of a range of 21-24, the first factor is the time the attacker would take to identify and manipulate each possible vulnerability. For both phases, up to a week is 6 points, up to a month is 9 points and over a month is 13 points. Next is the attacker’s expertise, which needs to be rated at least proficient (4 points) or expert (9 points). Then the attacker’s equipment should be specialized (7 points) or bespoke (11 points). The attack potential for an attack by an expert taking up to one week using specialized equipment would be rated 22 (6+9+7), which is within the Enhanced-Basic range of 21-24.

How analog anti-tamper IP can help

Analog anti-tamper solutions can help detect security threats such as clock, voltage or temperature related attacks, as well as electromagnetic or laser fault injection attacks. By implementing analog anti-tamper IP the attack potential could be extended to over a month by an expert with bespoke equipment, reaching a potential score of at least 33 (13+9+11), which is the High rating.

Our agileSecure portfolio includes customizable anti-tamper security IP solutions. This includes tamper detection IP such as a clock attack monitor (agileCAM), voltage glitch detector (agileVGLITCH), temperature sensor (agileTSENSE_D) and electromagnetic fault injection detector (agileEMSensor). A laser fault injection sensor is on the product roadmap.

Security certification can be technically difficult, time-consuming and costly, particularly as chip designs are often migrated to new foundry nodes (or process technologies). Thanks to our unique Composa technology, our agileSecure IP can be generated automatically for all major foundries and process nodes, and then easily ported as required. Therefore, much of the previous vulnerability analysis can be used following a port to a new node, reducing costs and accelerating time-to-market.

Learn more about our analog anti-tamper IP in this agileSecure blog post.