Hardware Reverse Engineering (HRE) is a technique for analyzing Integrated Circuits (ICs). Experts employ HRE for various security-critical tasks, such as design verification or the detection of intellectual property violations. However, HRE also enables threat actors to subvert the security of an IC. Previous studies have shown that analysts rely heavily on their cognitive abilities to perform HRE as no fully automated solutions exist. Therefore, conducting controlled experimental studies to assess the cognitive processes involved in HRE could open new avenues for hardware protection. However, researchers have faced the methodological challenge that HRE experts are largely unavailable for such empirical research. To address this scarcity, we have developed REVERSIM, a game-based simulation that mimics realistic HRE subprocesses and is specifically designed to require no prior knowledge. To support these claims, we conducted two empirical studies: First, we performed semi-structured interviews with 14 professionals and researchers from the HRE domain, who attested to the comparability of REVERSIM to real-world HRE problems. Second, we conducted a user study involving 89 non-expert participants, demonstrating that participants could engage in the simulation without prior knowledge in HRE or related domains. Finally, we outline several research directions for experiments with REVERSIM, highlighting its potential in advancing HRE research.

翻译：硬件逆向工程（HRE）是一种分析集成电路（IC）的技术。专家将HRE用于各种安全关键任务，例如设计验证或知识产权侵权检测。然而，HRE也使威胁行为者能够破坏IC的安全性。先前研究表明，由于不存在完全自动化的解决方案，分析师严重依赖其认知能力来执行HRE。因此，开展受控实验研究以评估HRE涉及的认知过程，可为硬件保护开辟新途径。但研究人员面临方法学挑战：HRE专家通常无法参与此类实证研究。为应对这一人才稀缺问题，我们开发了REVERSIM——一种基于游戏的模拟系统，它模拟了真实的HRE子过程，并特别设计为无需任何先验知识。为支撑上述论断，我们进行了两项实证研究：首先，与14位来自HRE领域的专业人士和研究人员进行了半结构化访谈，他们证实了REVERSIM与现实世界HRE问题的可比性；其次，开展了一项涉及89位非专家参与者的用户研究，结果表明参与者无需HRE或相关领域先验知识即可参与模拟。最后，我们概述了REVERSIM实验的几个研究方向，凸显其在推进HRE研究中的潜力。