Tamper Resistance and Detection
Supply Chain Risk Management
NIST Control Text
Implement a tamper protection program for the system, system component, or system service.
NIST Discussion
Anti-tamper technologies, tools, and techniques provide a level of protection for systems, system components, and services against many threats, including reverse engineering, modification, and substitution. Strong identification combined with tamper resistance and/or tamper detection is essential to protecting systems and components during distribution and when in use.
SL5 Supplemental Guidance
AI accelerators within Weight Enclaves implement comprehensive tamper protection. Sensitive data must exist unencrypted during computation, making the compute cores attractive targets for physical attack. Tamper protection extends to all contexts where confidential data exists in plaintext—not just the root-of-trust components.
Specific mechanisms are determined based on threat model and risk assessment. Detection mechanisms identify tampering attempts; response mechanisms may include zeroization of sensitive data.