Assurance Oriented Hardware Decomposition: A Deterministic Approach to Security Assurance

Assurance Oriented Hardware Decomposition: A Deterministic Approach to Security Assurance | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article Assurance Oriented Hardware Decomposition: A Deterministic Approach to Security Assurance Shao-Fang Wen, Arvind Sharma This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-8366408/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Security assurance for modern hardware systems requires reasoning that is traceable, repeatable, and grounded in documented architectural structure. However, existing assurance practices provide limited methodological support for deterministically transforming heterogeneous engineering documentation into structured assurance representations. This paper presents Assurance Oriented Hardware Decomposition (AHD), a multi-phase methodology for deriving assurance-relevant artefacts from documentation through semantics guided and provenance preserving transformations. AHD reconstructs assurance obligations, exposure boundaries, feasibility conditions, and consolidated assurance execution units using a formal knowledge base that enforces rule governed and reproducible reasoning. An evaluation across three heterogeneous hardware systems examines the methodological behavior of AHD under varied architectural and documentary conditions. The results indicate that the methodology produces stable and coherent assurance structures that reflect differences in system architecture and documentation characteristics. These findings suggest that deterministic, evidence grounded decomposition, supported by bounded AI annotation, provides a structured foundation for hardware assurance reasoning without asserting security effectiveness. System security hardware security assurance security evaluation assurance methodology Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Supplementary Files SupplementaryAHD.zip Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. 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Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-8366408","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":573510998,"identity":"721ee538-a33c-480d-a37a-d54af414aa31","order_by":0,"name":"Shao-Fang 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