GNN4IP: Graph Neural Network for Hardware Intellectual Property Piracy Detection
Not on the map. Why?
Abstract (arXiv)
Aggressive time-to-market constraints and enormous hardware design and fabrication costs have pushed the semiconductor industry toward hardware Intellectual Properties (IP) core design. However, the globalization of the integrated circuits (IC) supply chain exposes IP providers to theft and illegal redistribution of IPs. Watermarking and fingerprinting are proposed to detect IP piracy. Nevertheless, they come with additional hardware overhead and cannot guarantee IP security as advanced attacks are reported to remove the watermark, forge, or bypass it. In this work, we propose a novel methodology, GNN4IP, to assess similarities between circuits and detect IP piracy. We model the hardware design as a graph and construct a graph neural network model to learn its behavior using the comprehensive dataset of register transfer level codes and gate-level netlists that we have gathered. GNN4IP detects IP piracy with 96% accuracy in our dataset and recognizes the original IP in its obfuscated version with 100% accuracy.
Key facts. Cited by 14 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026). Builds on 6 of its 30 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 19 Jul 2021.
Builds on
6 of 30 references.
References · 6
- 2016Semi-Supervised Classification with Graph Convolutional Networkscited by 11,361
- 2019A Comprehensive Survey on Graph Neural Networkscited by 2,919
- 2019Self-Attention Graph Poolingcited by 421
- 2020Detecting Code Clones with Graph Neural Networkand Flow-Augmented Abstract Syntax Treecited by 69
- 2017Neural Network-based Graph Embedding for Cross-Platform Binary Code Similarity Detectioncited by 65
- 2018Raise Your Game for Split Manufacturing: Restoring the True Functionality Through BEOLcited by 2
Built on by
Citing papers per year: 2021: 1; 2022: 4; 2023: 0; 2024: 3; 2025: 4; 2026: 2.
14 papers.
Sort:
By area:
- 2024CreativEval: Evaluating Creativity of LLM-Based Hardware Code Generationcited by 19
- 2021HW2VEC: A Graph Learning Tool for Automating Hardware Securitycited by 16
- 2025NetDeTox: Adversarial and Efficient Evasion of Hardware-Security GNNs via RL-LLM Orchestrationcited by 9
- 2024LLMPirate: LLMs for Black-box Hardware IP Piracycited by 7
- 2024AttackGNN: Red-Teaming GNNs in Hardware Security Using Reinforcement Learningcited by 6
- 2022Graph Neural Networks: A Powerful and Versatile Tool for Advancing Design, Reliability, and Security of ICscited by 3
- 2022Device-Bind Key-Storageless Hardware AI Model IP Protection: A PUF and Permute-Diffusion Encryption-Enabled Approachcited by 3
- 2025Intellectual Property in Graph-Based Machine Learning as a Service: Attacks and Defensescited by 3
- 2022Golden Reference-Free Hardware Trojan Localization using Graph Convolutional Networkcited by 2
- 2025Free and Fair Hardware: A Pathway to Copyright Infringement-Free Verilog Generation using LLMscited by 2
- 2022A Survey and Perspective on Artificial Intelligence for Security-Aware Electronic Design Automationcited by 1
- 2025Circuit Diagram Retrieval Based on Hierarchical Circuit Graph Representationcited by 1
- 2026ReDIL-GNN: Resynthesis Domain Incremental Learning for Circuit Graph Neural Networks16 Sep 2026
- 2026Wrong Code, Right Structure: Learning Netlist Representations from Imperfect LLM-Generated RTL10 Mar 2026
- 2025NetDeTox: Adversarial and Efficient Evasion of Hardware-Security GNNs via RL-LLM Orchestration27 Nov 2025
- 2025Intellectual Property in Graph-Based Machine Learning as a Service: Attacks and Defenses27 Aug 2025
- 2025Free and Fair Hardware: A Pathway to Copyright Infringement-Free Verilog Generation using LLMs9 May 2025
- 2025Circuit Diagram Retrieval Based on Hierarchical Circuit Graph Representation5 Feb 2025
- 2024LLMPirate: LLMs for Black-box Hardware IP Piracy25 Nov 2024
- 2024CreativEval: Evaluating Creativity of LLM-Based Hardware Code Generation12 Apr 2024
- 2024AttackGNN: Red-Teaming GNNs in Hardware Security Using Reinforcement Learning21 Feb 2024
- 2022Device-Bind Key-Storageless Hardware AI Model IP Protection: A PUF and Permute-Diffusion Encryption-Enabled Approach21 Dec 2022
- 2022Graph Neural Networks: A Powerful and Versatile Tool for Advancing Design, Reliability, and Security of ICs29 Nov 2022
- 2022Golden Reference-Free Hardware Trojan Localization using Graph Convolutional Network14 Jul 2022
- 2024CreativEval: Evaluating Creativity of LLM-Based Hardware Code Generationcited by 19
- 2021HW2VEC: A Graph Learning Tool for Automating Hardware Securitycited by 16
- 2025NetDeTox: Adversarial and Efficient Evasion of Hardware-Security GNNs via RL-LLM Orchestrationcited by 9
- 2024LLMPirate: LLMs for Black-box Hardware IP Piracycited by 7
- 2022Graph Neural Networks: A Powerful and Versatile Tool for Advancing Design, Reliability, and Security of ICscited by 3
- 2025Intellectual Property in Graph-Based Machine Learning as a Service: Attacks and Defensescited by 3
- 2022Golden Reference-Free Hardware Trojan Localization using Graph Convolutional Networkcited by 2
- 2025Free and Fair Hardware: A Pathway to Copyright Infringement-Free Verilog Generation using LLMscited by 2
- 2022A Survey and Perspective on Artificial Intelligence for Security-Aware Electronic Design Automationcited by 1
- 2025Circuit Diagram Retrieval Based on Hierarchical Circuit Graph Representationcited by 1
- 2026Wrong Code, Right Structure: Learning Netlist Representations from Imperfect LLM-Generated RTLcited by 0
- 2026ReDIL-GNN: Resynthesis Domain Incremental Learning for Circuit Graph Neural Networkscited by 0
- 2026ReDIL-GNN: Resynthesis Domain Incremental Learning for Circuit Graph Neural Networks16 Sep 2026
- 2026Wrong Code, Right Structure: Learning Netlist Representations from Imperfect LLM-Generated RTL10 Mar 2026
- 2025NetDeTox: Adversarial and Efficient Evasion of Hardware-Security GNNs via RL-LLM Orchestration27 Nov 2025
- 2025Intellectual Property in Graph-Based Machine Learning as a Service: Attacks and Defenses27 Aug 2025
- 2025Free and Fair Hardware: A Pathway to Copyright Infringement-Free Verilog Generation using LLMs9 May 2025
- 2025Circuit Diagram Retrieval Based on Hierarchical Circuit Graph Representation5 Feb 2025
- 2024LLMPirate: LLMs for Black-box Hardware IP Piracy25 Nov 2024
- 2024CreativEval: Evaluating Creativity of LLM-Based Hardware Code Generation12 Apr 2024
- 2022Graph Neural Networks: A Powerful and Versatile Tool for Advancing Design, Reliability, and Security of ICs29 Nov 2022
- 2022Golden Reference-Free Hardware Trojan Localization using Graph Convolutional Network14 Jul 2022
- 2022A Survey and Perspective on Artificial Intelligence for Security-Aware Electronic Design Automation19 Apr 2022
- 2021HW2VEC: A Graph Learning Tool for Automating Hardware Security26 Jul 2021
Similar, not cited
Close in wording, no citation either way
- 2023Deep Intellectual Property Protection: A Survey
- 2026GRAFT: Graphlet-Triggered Backdoor Attack on GNN-Based Hardware Security Systems ↗
- 2023Graph Neural Networks for Hardware Vulnerability Analysis -- Can you Trust your GNN?
- 2026GraphIP-Bench: How Hard Is It to Steal a Graph Neural Network, and Can We Stop It?
- 2025TROJAN-GUARD: Hardware Trojans Detection Using GNN in RTL Designs
- 2024Watermarking Neuromorphic Brains: Intellectual Property Protection in Spiking Neural Networks
- 2023PoisonedGNN: Backdoor Attack on Graph Neural Networks-based Hardware Security Systems
- 2024PreGIP: Watermarking the Pretraining of Graph Neural Networks for Deep Intellectual Property Protection