Secure NVM Write Service

Provides write access to pages in the sNVM. Data can be stored as encrypted and authenticated ciphertext, authenticated plaintext, and non-authenticated plaintext.

For authenticated plaintext and authenticated ciphertext, a 512-bit sNVM master key (SMK) is the primary key used, with 256-bits allocated for authentication and 256 bits for encryption. SMK is common for all sNVM pages. The 96-bit user-supplied key, USK is used to authenticate the sNVM page content. The USK does not need to be stored on the device, but it must be presented to the sNVM read system service to correctly retrieve the data.

For crypto-enabled options, the System Controller uses AES-256 in synthetic initialization vector (SIV) mode, which supports authenticated encryption. In SIV mode, the initialization vector used for the encryption function is computed from the data, preventing initialization vector misuse, and doubles as the authentication tag. The computed 128-bit initialization vector is stored in the same page as the user data, reducing the available space for user data by 16 bytes compared to the non-authenticated plaintext-only option.

Besides the user-supplied plaintext data, both the device families also submit additional metadata for authentication that effectively provides a “tweak” to the encryption and authentication functions. Some of the data included are the page address and the page write-counter. This means that the ciphertext and the authentication tag are different even if the same data is written to two different sNVM pages, or even if the same data is written to the same page again (since the page-write counter advances).

The USK is used as another element in the “tweak”. Without the same 96-bit USK as was used during the write command, the read command fails authentication, however, the plaintext data is still available in the fabric. The user can choose to set this key differently for each page, or for groups of pages, or the same for all pages—either as a secret key for added security, or to a invalid value such as all zeroes if this feature is not needed.

Note: In Libero, the added USK client is stored in the user specified sNVM page and this USK is used for all the authenticated plaintext or authenticated ciphertext clients created in the Libero project. User application in the fabric may use a different USK and overwrite any of the sNVM data clients (not marked as ROM) using sNVM write system service during runtime. However, it causes design verification failure using bitstream, even if the data is same.

sNVM modules marked as ROM cannot be overwritten by this service. The service cannot be used to create ROM modules (write-protected pages). ROM is declared when a bitstream is generated, and a page's ROM status can only be changed with a new bitstream, and not at run-time.

Table 1. Secure NVM Write Request
System Service Descriptor Bit Field	Value	Description
15:7	MBOXADDR[10:2]	Mailbox address. See Table 2 and Table 3.
6:0	10H	Non-authenticated plaintext service command
	11H	Authenticated plaintext service command
	12H	Authenticated ciphertext service command

The following table lists the Secure NVM Write Service Mailbox Format for Non-authenticated plaintext (10H).

Table 2. Secure NVM Write Service Mailbox Format (10H)
Offset	Length (bytes)	Parameter	Direction	Description
0	1	SNVMADDR	Input	sNVM address
1	3	RESERVED		Reserved
4	252	DATA	Input	Data to write to sNVM

The following table lists the Secure NVM Write Service Mailbox Format for authenticated plaintext (11H) and Authenticated ciphertext (12H).

Table 3. Secure NVM Write Service Mailbox Format (11H, 12H)
Offset	Length (bytes)	Parameter	Direction	Description
0	1	SNVMADDR	Input	sNVM address
1	3	RESERVED		Reserved
4	236	DATA	Input	Data to write to sNVM
240	12	USK	Input	User Secret Key