• Journal of Korea Society of Industrial Information Systems
• /
• v.27 no.4
• /
• pp.11-18
• /
• 2022

A physically unclonable function (PUF) is a circuit that generates random numbers by exploiting natural variation. Since it utilizes variations, which cannot be fully controlled, it can be used to generate true random numbers, but environment change may distort the output. In this paper, we propose a PUF with a confidence signal. We designed a PUF that exploits the difference of the time constant of the circuit and verified that different PUFs generate distinct outputs and the same PUF keeps generating similar outputs regardless of the temperature change. Compared to the existing technique, which employs an error correction code, the proposed technique offers the same level of reliability at the 700 times smaller overhead.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
• /
• v.37 no.5
• /
• pp.527-532
• /
• 2024

Physically Unclonable Functions (PUFs) provide a high level of security for private keys using unique physical characteristics of hardware. However, fabricating PUF chips requires numerous semiconductor processes, leading to high costs, which limits their applications. In this work, we introduce a low-cost manufacturing method for PUF security chips. First, surface roughening through wet-etching is utilized to create random variables. Additionally, physical vapor deposition is added to further enhance randomness. After PUF chip fabrication, both Hamming distance (HD) and Hamming weight (HW) are extracted and compared to verify the fabricated chip. It is confirmed that the PUF chip using two different multiple process variables demonstrates superior uniqueness and uniformity compared to the PUF security chip fabricated using only a single process variable.

• Convergence Security Journal
• /
• v.24 no.3
• /
• pp.59-65
• /
• 2024

This research proposes an accelerated aging test procedure for Static Random Access Memory Physically Unclonable Functions (SRAM PUFs). PUFs utilize semiconductor process variations to serve as a hardware security feature, akin to semiconductor device fingerprints. Thus, the proposed accelerated aging test simulates a semiconductor's 10-year lifecycle, enabling the prediction of PUF characteristics after a decade of use, which is crucial for verifying the safety and stability of SRAM PUFs. This research introduces test procedures that simulate 10 years of aging in approximately 9 days by setting temperature and voltage higher than operational environments. These procedures allow for the quantitative evaluation of SRAM PUF characteristics. This research is expected to contribute to the advancement of design and maintenance testing techniques for systems based on SRAM PUFs.

• The KIPS Transactions:PartC
• /
• v.16C no.6
• /
• pp.669-680
• /
• 2009

By identifying the unique information of the objects using the RF, the RFID technique which will be able to manage the object is spot-lighted as the main technology in Ubiquitous era. On RFID systems, since the information of RFID may easily be unveiled in air, the secure and privacy problems always exist. In this paper, we propose mutual authentication protocol based on symmetric key. Proposed protocol has been able to minimize the tag's H/W resource by using symmetric key. And we use tag ID which is encrypted with hash function and a shared symmetric key by Challenge-Response pair of PUF(Physically Unclonable Function), thus there is no key disclosure problem in our protocol.

• Journal of Korea Society of Industrial Information Systems
• /
• v.29 no.3
• /
• pp.23-40
• /
• 2024

Hardware attacks involve physical reverse engineering efforts to steal sensitive information, such as encryption keys and circuit designs. Encryption and obfuscation are representative countermeasures, but they are nullified if adversaries manage to find the key. To address this issue, we propose e-Cryptex, which utilizes a Physically Unclonable Function (PUF) as an anti-tampering shield. PUF acts as a random number generator and relies on unique physical variants that cannot be replicated or restored to enhance anti-tampering mechanisms. e-Cryptex uses PUF as a shield to protect the system's structure and generate the key. Tampering with the shield will result in the destruction of the key. This paper demonstrates that e-Cryptex meets PUF security requirements and is effective in detecting of tampering attempts that pierce or completely destroy the shield. Each board consistently generates the same key under normal conditions, while also showing key uniqueness across different boards.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Information Security & Cryptology
• /
• v.24 no.1
• /
• pp.241-259
• /
• 2014

A PUF is a technology for distinguishing a device from other devices like biological information such as humans' iris or fingerprints. Over the past decade, many researchers studied various methods for implementing PUFs and utilizing them in identification, random number generation, key distribution and authentication. However, various attacks on the PUFs are the major reason to inhibiting the proliferation of PUF. For the reasons, various technologies are being studied to enhance safety of PUFs. In this paper, we will see several PUF implementations and various attacks on PUFs, and suggest guidelines for securely implementing PUFs. We expect our guidelines would be the foundation for implementing the secure and reliable PUFs.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Information Security & Cryptology
• /
• v.24 no.5
• /
• pp.987-999
• /
• 2014

A PUF is embedded and implemented into a tag or a device, and outputs a noise y with an input of x, based on its own unique physical characteristics. Although x is used multiple times as inputs of PUF, the PUF outputs slightly different noises, ($y_1,{\cdots}y_n$), and also the PUF has tamper-resistance property, hence it has been widely used in cryptographic protocol. In this paper, we study how to design a PUF-based RFID authentication protocol in a secure and an efficient way. Compared with recent schemes, the proposed scheme guarantees both authentication and privacy of backword/forward under the compromise of long-term secrets stored in tag. And also, the most cost and time-consumming procedure, key recovery algorithm used with PUF, has been desgined in the side of RFID reader, not in the tag, and, consequently, gives possibility to minimize costs for implementation and running time.