Design of Resistor-Capacitor Physically Unclonable Function for Resource-Constrained IoT Devices

Abstract

Keeping IoT devices secure has been a major challenge recently. One of the possible solutions to secure IoT devices is to use a physically unclonable function (PUF). A PUF is a security primitive that can generate device-specific cryptographic information by extracting the features of hardware uncertainty. Because PUF instances are very difficult to replicate even by the manufacturer, the generated bit sequence can be used as cryptographic keys or as a unique identifier for the device. Regarding the implementation of PUF, the majority of PUFs introduced over the past decade are in the form of active components and have been implemented as separate chips or embedded as a part of a chip, making it difficult to use them in low-cost IoT devices due to cost and design flexibility. One approach to easily adopt PUFs in resource-constrained IoT devices is to use passive components such as resistors and capacitors (RC) that can be configured at low cost. The main feature of this RC-based PUF is that it extracts the small difference caused by charging and discharging of RC circuits and uses it as a response. In this paper, we extend the previous research and show the possibility to secure IoT devices by using the RC-based PUF.

Hands-Free Authentication for Virtual Assistants with Trusted IoT Device and Machine Learning

“…A relevant work for random number generator presented a proof of concept with an additional static random access memory (SRAM) and a Raspberry Pi device [98]. We also consider the RC-PUF, which is based on additional passive components (i.e., resistors and capacitors) [99].…”

Two-Factor Device DNA-Based Fuzzy Vault for Industrial IoT Device Security

“…Unlike existing PUFs which use PUFdedicated ASIC, EPUF has the advantage that it can be implemented without extra hardware because it can generate device DNA by using SRAM, Flash, or an RC(resistorcapacitor) circuit embedded in IIoT devices. In this paper, we utilize EPUF using an RC circuit, called RC PUF [42], to generate a two-factor device DNA.…”

“…Two-factor device DNA can be generated only when a legitimate device holding the strong PUF is located at the specific legitimate location, so it can provide the security of encrypted data by using the two-factor device DNA against physical attacks. We utilize a resistor-capacitor (RC) PUF [42] as a strong PUF. The RC PUF adopts analog circuits such as resistors and capacitors and an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) as a PUF primitive, so it can provide affordable PUF functionality for resource-constrained IoT devices without using on-chip/offchip PUF-dedicated hardware [42].…”

“…We utilize a resistor-capacitor (RC) PUF [42] as a strong PUF. The RC PUF adopts analog circuits such as resistors and capacitors and an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) as a PUF primitive, so it can provide affordable PUF functionality for resource-constrained IoT devices without using on-chip/offchip PUF-dedicated hardware [42].…”

“…The configuration of our prototype IIoT device is shown in Figure 5. Our prototype consists of a Raspberry Pi, a LAUNCHXL-CC1350, and Kidden board with attached RC PUF [42] with functionalities to obtain PUF as an intrinsic factor. ID i ←− Identify T x i Device ID; 5:…”