A Lightweight Architecture for Hardware-Based Security in the Emerging Era of Systems of Systems

Mexis, Nico; Anagnostopoulos, Nikolaos Athanasios; Chen, Shuai; Bambach, Jan; Arul, Tolga; Katzenbeisser, Stefan

doi:10.1145/3458824

Cited by 11 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 33 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Therefore, future works should address the role of PUFs as security mechanisms in the context of systems of systems and networks of networks, especially in the context of the emerging IoT 2.0 concept. To this end, we have published some preliminary works in order to define and explore this novel scientific field [247,248]. Finally, future works should also examine the effects of aging on the quality of the responses of memory-based PUFs, and investigate the potential for the implementation of relevant low-cost attacks based on such potential effects of aging.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Practical Lightweight Security: Physical Unclonable Functions and the Internet of Things

Anagnostopoulos¹

2022

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In this work, we examine whether Physical Unclonable Functions (PUFs) can act as lightweight security mechanisms for practical applications in the context of the Internet of Things (IoT). In order to do so, we first discuss what PUFs are, and note that memory-based PUFs seem to fit the best to the framework of the IoT. Then, we consider a number of relevant memory-based PUF designs and their properties, and evaluate their ability to provide security in nominal and adverse conditions. Finally, we present and assess a number of practical PUF-based security protocols for IoT devices and networks, in order to confirm that memory-based PUFs can indeed constitute adequate security mechanisms for the IoT, in a practical and lightweight fashion.More specifically, we first consider what may constitute a PUF, and we redefine PUFs as inanimate physical objects whose characteristics can be exploited in order to obtain a behaviour similar to a highly distinguishable (i.e., “(quite) unique”) mathematical function. We note that PUFs share many characteristics with biometrics, with the main difference being that PUFs are based on the characteristics of inanimate objects, while biometrics are based on the characteristics of humans and other living creatures. We also note that it cannot really be proven that PUFs are unique per instance, but they should be considered to be so, insofar as (human) biometrics are also considered to be unique per instance.We, then, proceed to discuss the role of PUFs as security mechanisms for the IoT, and we determine that memory-based PUFs are particularly suited for this function. We observe that the IoT nowadays consists of heterogeneous devices connected over diverse networks, which include both high-end and resource-constrained devices. Therefore, it is essential that a security solution for the IoT is not only effective, but also highly scalable, flexible, lightweight, and cost-efficient, in order to be considered as practical. To this end, we note that PUFs have been proposed as security mechanisms for the IoT in the related work, but the practicality of the relevant security mechanisms has not been sufficiently studied.We, therefore, examine a number of memory-based PUFs that are implemented using Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS) components, and assess their potential to serve as acceptable security mechanisms in the context of the IoT, not only in terms of effectiveness and cost, but also under both nominal and adverse conditions, such as ambient temperature and supply voltage variations, as well as in the presence of (ionising) radiation. In this way, we can determine whether memory-based PUFs are truly suitable to be used in the various application areas of the IoT, which may even involve particularly adverse environments, e.g., in IoT applications involving space modules and operations.Finally, we also explore the potential of memory-based PUFs to serve as adequate security mechanisms for the IoT in practice, by presenting and analysing a number of cryptographic protocols based on these PUFs. In particular, we study how memory-based PUFs can be used for key generation, as well as device identification, and authentication, their role as security mechanisms for current and next-generation IoT devices and networks, and their potential for applications in the space segment of the IoT and in other adverse environments. Additionally, this work also discusses how memory-based PUFs can be utilised for the implementation of lightweight reconfigurable PUFs that allow for advanced security applications. In this way, we are able to confirm that memory-based PUFs can indeed provide flexible, scalable, and efficient security solutions for the IoT, in a practical, lightweight, and inexpensive manner.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Practical Lightweight Security: Physical Unclonable Functions and the Internet of Things

Anagnostopoulos¹

2022

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Its tamper-resistant property and its ability to securely identify devices by querying, without the need for permanent keys storage or well-defined algorithm support, vastly reduce the risk of many powerful physical attacks, such as reverse engineering, probing, fault injection attacks, security tokens, etc. [ 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Entropy Sources Based on Silicon Chips: True Random Number Generator and Physical Unclonable Function

Cao

Liu

Lan

et al. 2022

Entropy

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Entropy is a measure of uncertainty or randomness. It is the foundation for almost all cryptographic systems. True random number generators (TRNGs) and physical unclonable functions (PUFs) are the silicon primitives to respectively harvest dynamic and static entropy to generate random bit streams. In this survey paper, we present a systematic and comprehensive review of different state-of-the-art methods to harvest entropy from silicon-based devices, including the implementations, applications, and the security of the designs. Furthermore, we conclude the trends of the entropy source design to point out the current spots of entropy harvesting.

show abstract

A systematic mapping study on security for systems of systems

Olivero,

Bertolino,

Dominguez-Mayo

et al. 2023

Int. J. Inf. Secur.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In the late twentieth century, the term “System of Systems” (SoS) became popular to describe a complex system made up of a combination of independent constituent systems. Since then, several studies have been conducted to support and assess SoS management, functionality, and performance. Due to the evolutionary nature of SoS and the non-composability of the security properties of its constituent systems, it is difficult to assess or evaluate SoS security. This paper provides an up-to-date survey on SoS security, aimed at stimulating and guiding further research efforts. This systematic mapping study (SMS) focuses on SoS security, privacy, and trust. Our SMS identified 1828 studies from 6 digital libraries, 87 of which were selected that presented approaches analyzing, evaluating, or improving security. We classified these studies using nine research questions that focused on the nature of the studies, the studied SoS, or the study validation. After examining the selected studies, we identified six gaps and as many future work directions. More precisely, we observed that few studies examine SoS problems and instead propose specific solutions, making it challenging to develop generalizable approaches. Furthermore, the lack of standardization has hindered the reuse of existing approaches, making it difficult for solutions to be generalized to other SoS. In addition, the lack of descriptions of industrial environments in the literature makes it difficult to design realistic validation environments. As a result, the validation of new SoS research remains a challenge in the field.

show abstract

A Lightweight Architecture for Hardware-Based Security in the Emerging Era of Systems of Systems

Cited by 11 publications

References 33 publications

Practical Lightweight Security: Physical Unclonable Functions and the Internet of Things

Practical Lightweight Security: Physical Unclonable Functions and the Internet of Things

Entropy Sources Based on Silicon Chips: True Random Number Generator and Physical Unclonable Function

A systematic mapping study on security for systems of systems

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About