Logically Locked I2C Protocol for Improved Security

Abstract

The inter-integrated circuit is a serial, half-duplex protocol. It is a synchronous device that can implement multi-masters and multi-slaves. The masters are the controlling blocks that initiate all activities of the slaves. It is important to ensure that this communication is secured. This paper aims at a simplistic approach to lock the clock line of the I2C using logic gates so as to protect the information passing through the data lines. It makes use of a four-digit hexadecimal password. This allows up to 65,536 combinations enhancing the security and to gain additional control over I2C. This proposal uses a concept of logic locking to gain security.