Hakim Filali contributed to the lowRISC/opentitan repository by engineering robust cryptographic and hardware security features across embedded systems. He developed and integrated APIs for Ed25519 and ECC, implemented side-channel attack countermeasures, and enhanced test infrastructure for deterministic validation. Using C, Python, and SystemVerilog, Hakim introduced randomness and blinding in scalar operations, consolidated memory management, and migrated tests to modern frameworks like HJSON. His work included simulation models for hardware interfaces and refactored assembly for maintainability. These efforts improved security, reliability, and testability, addressing both software and hardware layers with a focus on cryptographic correctness and reproducible validation workflows.
March 2026: Security-focused ECC enhancement for lowRISC/opentitan. Introduced randomness before shifting the ECC scalar to mitigate side-channel attacks, increasing security and unpredictability of ECC operations. Commit 3ad70d3655ee35aefde22f118b7af57566e65470 (pre-register with randomness in the ECC scalar path).
March 2026: Security-focused ECC enhancement for lowRISC/opentitan. Introduced randomness before shifting the ECC scalar to mitigate side-channel attacks, increasing security and unpredictability of ECC operations. Commit 3ad70d3655ee35aefde22f118b7af57566e65470 (pre-register with randomness in the ECC scalar path).
January 2026 monthly summary: Delivered OTBN KMAC interface and register infrastructure in opentitan. Key outcomes include adding KMAC support to OTBNsim with new CSRs/WSRs, consolidating CSR/WSR handling into a reusable ISPR class, and delivering assembly tests that exercise all KMAC modes and kstrength combinations. These changes improve simulation fidelity for KMAC-enabled OTBN workflows, reduce maintenance overhead through a generalized ISPR pattern, and expand test coverage for security-critical crypto paths. Business value includes accelerated hardware verification for cryptographic cores, improved reliability through thorough testing, and enabling future KMAC feature work. Technologies demonstrated include C, Python, assembly tests, OTBNsim model, ISPR class pattern, and CSR/WSR abstractions.
January 2026 monthly summary: Delivered OTBN KMAC interface and register infrastructure in opentitan. Key outcomes include adding KMAC support to OTBNsim with new CSRs/WSRs, consolidating CSR/WSR handling into a reusable ISPR class, and delivering assembly tests that exercise all KMAC modes and kstrength combinations. These changes improve simulation fidelity for KMAC-enabled OTBN workflows, reduce maintenance overhead through a generalized ISPR pattern, and expand test coverage for security-critical crypto paths. Business value includes accelerated hardware verification for cryptographic cores, improved reliability through thorough testing, and enabling future KMAC feature work. Technologies demonstrated include C, Python, assembly tests, OTBNsim model, ISPR class pattern, and CSR/WSR abstractions.
Monthly summary for 2025-12 focused on the lowRISC/opentitan project. Delivered major cryptography features and robust simulation support, with an emphasis on security, testability, and hardware-software integration.
Monthly summary for 2025-12 focused on the lowRISC/opentitan project. Delivered major cryptography features and robust simulation support, with an emphasis on security, testability, and hardware-software integration.
November 2025 monthly summary for lowRISC/opentitan focused on reliability, deterministic testing, and test hygiene in cryptographic validation. Key outcomes include stabilizing cryptographic test validation by ensuring entropy_complex is initialized before SHA and HMAC tests, enabling known-answer testing (KAT) through configurable secret scalar k for ECDSA P-256 and P-384, and improving test maintainability by reorganizing Ed25519 tests and consolidating global variables. These efforts increased test reliability, reproducibility, and compliance-readiness while reducing CI churn and onboarding friction.
November 2025 monthly summary for lowRISC/opentitan focused on reliability, deterministic testing, and test hygiene in cryptographic validation. Key outcomes include stabilizing cryptographic test validation by ensuring entropy_complex is initialized before SHA and HMAC tests, enabling known-answer testing (KAT) through configurable secret scalar k for ECDSA P-256 and P-384, and improving test maintainability by reorganizing Ed25519 tests and consolidating global variables. These efforts increased test reliability, reproducibility, and compliance-readiness while reducing CI churn and onboarding friction.
Month: 2025-10 — Focused on cryptographic robustness in lowRISC/opentitan. Delivered key features and fixes across P384, ECC, and testing/docs, driving security, reliability, and maintainability. Business value includes stronger cryptographic validation, reduced error surfaces during OTBN operation, and streamlined testing and documentation.
Month: 2025-10 — Focused on cryptographic robustness in lowRISC/opentitan. Delivered key features and fixes across P384, ECC, and testing/docs, driving security, reliability, and maintainability. Business value includes stronger cryptographic validation, reduced error surfaces during OTBN operation, and streamlined testing and documentation.
September 2025 monthly summary for lowRISC/opentitan (P384 on OTBN). Focused on hardening cryptographic operations, calibrating performance metrics, and improving code quality to align with OTBN standards. Key outcomes include stronger resistance to side-channel leakage in P384, more accurate performance visibility for ECDSA signing, and maintainable, standards-compliant assembly.
September 2025 monthly summary for lowRISC/opentitan (P384 on OTBN). Focused on hardening cryptographic operations, calibrating performance metrics, and improving code quality to align with OTBN standards. Key outcomes include stronger resistance to side-channel leakage in P384, more accurate performance visibility for ECDSA signing, and maintainable, standards-compliant assembly.
Monthly summary for 2025-08 - lowRISC/opentitan: Delivered security hardening for ECC P-256/P-384 via scalar blinding and masking; improved ECC operation measurement; fixed memory overflow; migrated cryptolib tests to the HJSON framework; and enhanced test infrastructure and build alignment. The work provides stronger side-channel resistance, more accurate performance metrics, and improved testability and maintainability.
Monthly summary for 2025-08 - lowRISC/opentitan: Delivered security hardening for ECC P-256/P-384 via scalar blinding and masking; improved ECC operation measurement; fixed memory overflow; migrated cryptolib tests to the HJSON framework; and enhanced test infrastructure and build alignment. The work provides stronger side-channel resistance, more accurate performance metrics, and improved testability and maintainability.
Jul 2025 performance summary for lowRISC/opentitan focused on strengthening fault-injection resilience, stabilizing interfaces, and boosting tooling/testability. Key features delivered include cryptographic hardening across ECC and RSA paths, plus infrastructure improvements to support ongoing security validation.
Jul 2025 performance summary for lowRISC/opentitan focused on strengthening fault-injection resilience, stabilizing interfaces, and boosting tooling/testability. Key features delivered include cryptographic hardening across ECC and RSA paths, plus infrastructure improvements to support ongoing security validation.
June 2025 monthly summary for lowRISC/opentitan: Delivered KMAC DV test infrastructure hardening for fault injection and consolidated three commits into a cohesive reliability improvement. The changes reduce false positives, eliminate premature test termination during CSR fault-injection, and shorten test timeouts by reducing message sizes. These updates strengthen KMAC verification and CSR fault-injection coverage, enabling more deterministic DV results and faster validation cycles. Technologies used include KMAC, SHA-3, CSR fault-injection testing, DV/testbench, scoreboard tuning, and test automation.
June 2025 monthly summary for lowRISC/opentitan: Delivered KMAC DV test infrastructure hardening for fault injection and consolidated three commits into a cohesive reliability improvement. The changes reduce false positives, eliminate premature test termination during CSR fault-injection, and shorten test timeouts by reducing message sizes. These updates strengthen KMAC verification and CSR fault-injection coverage, enabling more deterministic DV results and faster validation cycles. Technologies used include KMAC, SHA-3, CSR fault-injection testing, DV/testbench, scoreboard tuning, and test automation.
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