Ultra simple way to encrypt non-volatile main memory

Building non-volatile main memory (NVMM) systems requires the memory data to be encrypted to remedy the potential security vulnerability caused by the non-volatile property of NVMM. Existing solutions still have shortcomings as vulnerability of security, inadequate optimizing of performance, and other limitations hold back their deployment into real systems. This paper proposes an address-based counter mode encrypted NVMM system. It constructs a stand-alone memory-side secure engine to make counter mode encryption and maintains the crucial encryption parameter of counter by adopting the address-based strategy. Compared with existing techniques, it provides the distinct advantages of: (1) higher assurance of security through encrypting any data at any time; (2) better performance, as nearly all of the encryption/decryption latencies are removed; (3) good feasibility due to the lowest-level protection, ultra simple structure with low implementation cost, as well as no need for further adjustments, and it can also be made available for a wide range of target platforms; (4) helpful to improve the lifetime of NVMM without side-effects to wear-leveling techniques. Performance evaluation shows the overall performance slowdown has an average value of 0.072%, which proves the proposed method is an effectual way to implement data protection for NVMM systems. Copyright (c) 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.