Hardware has long been viewed as a trusted party supporting the whole computer system and is often treated as an abstract layer running instructions passed through the software layer. Historically, cybersecurity community believed that the integrated circuit (IC) supply chain is well protected. However, the IC supply chain, which is now spread around the globe, has become more vulnerable to attacks than before. The heavy reliance on third-party resources/services breeds security concerns and invalidates the illusion that attackers cannot easily access the isolated IC supply chain. Formal methods have been proven to be effective in security verification on hardware code. Trustworthy hardware is also under development for the construction of the root-of-trust. The intrinsic properties of existing and emerging devices, MOSFET, memristor, spintronics, etc. are leveraged for security primitives and applications. Another trend in the hardware security area is the development of security enhanced hardware infrastructure for system level protection. The goal is to provide a fully operational software and hardware platform that ensures secure design, manufacturing, and deployment of modern computer systems.

Asian Hardware Oriented Security and Trust Symposium (AsianHOST) aims to facilitate the rapid growth of hardware security research and development in Asia and South Pacific areas. AsianHOST highlights new results in the area of hardware and system security. Relevant research topics include techniques, tools, design/test methods, architectures, circuits, and applications of secure hardware. AsianHOST 2017 invites original contributions related to, but not limited by, the following topics.