Hardware Security Failure Scenarios: Potential Hardware Weaknesses

Hardware vulnerabilities are a critical aspect of security that deserve close attention. While hardware is often considered robust, past incidents like Spectre and Meltdown highlight its susceptibility to serious flaws. Complex encodings and bugs in chips can introduce risks, some hard-coded into silicon, making mitigation difficult. This publication explores 98 scenarios to illuminate the unique security challenges hardware faces, distinguishing it from software vulnerabilities yet acknowledging their interconnection.