HAL -- An Open-Source Framework for Gate-Level Netlist Analysis

Fuente: arXiv
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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Speith, Julian, Langheinrich, Jörn, Fyrbiak, Marc, Hoffmann, Max, Wallat, Sebastian, Klix, Simon, Albartus, Nils, Walendy, René, Becker, Steffen, Paar, Christof
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Speith, Julian
Langheinrich, Jörn
Fyrbiak, Marc
Hoffmann, Max
Wallat, Sebastian
Klix, Simon
Albartus, Nils
Walendy, René
Becker, Steffen
Paar, Christof
author_facet Speith, Julian
Langheinrich, Jörn
Fyrbiak, Marc
Hoffmann, Max
Wallat, Sebastian
Klix, Simon
Albartus, Nils
Walendy, René
Becker, Steffen
Paar, Christof
contents HAL is an open-source framework for gate-level netlist analysis, an integral step in hardware reverse engineering. It provides analysts with an interactive GUI, an extensible plugin system, and APIs in both C++ and Python for rapid prototyping and automation. In addition, HAL ships with plugins for word-level modularization, cryptographic analysis, simulation, and graph-based exploration. Since its release in 2019, HAL has become widely adopted in academia, industry, government, and teaching. It underpins at least 23 academic publications, is taught in hands-on trainings, conference tutorials, and university classes, and has collected over 680 stars and 86 forks on GitHub. By enabling accessible and reproducible hardware reverse engineering research, HAL has significantly advanced the field and the understanding of real-world capabilities and threats.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2512_14139
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle HAL -- An Open-Source Framework for Gate-Level Netlist Analysis
Speith, Julian
Langheinrich, Jörn
Fyrbiak, Marc
Hoffmann, Max
Wallat, Sebastian
Klix, Simon
Albartus, Nils
Walendy, René
Becker, Steffen
Paar, Christof
Cryptography and Security
HAL is an open-source framework for gate-level netlist analysis, an integral step in hardware reverse engineering. It provides analysts with an interactive GUI, an extensible plugin system, and APIs in both C++ and Python for rapid prototyping and automation. In addition, HAL ships with plugins for word-level modularization, cryptographic analysis, simulation, and graph-based exploration. Since its release in 2019, HAL has become widely adopted in academia, industry, government, and teaching. It underpins at least 23 academic publications, is taught in hands-on trainings, conference tutorials, and university classes, and has collected over 680 stars and 86 forks on GitHub. By enabling accessible and reproducible hardware reverse engineering research, HAL has significantly advanced the field and the understanding of real-world capabilities and threats.
title HAL -- An Open-Source Framework for Gate-Level Netlist Analysis
topic Cryptography and Security
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.14139