Physical Random Functions and Secure Hardware Architectures

Massachusetts Institute Of Technology, Cambridge MA

Investigators

Abstract

Proposal CCR-0309562 Title: Physical Random Functions and Secure Hardware Architectures PI: Srinivas Devadas Computing elements are becoming small, disseminated and unsupervised, and significant responsibilities are being placed on them. Physical attacks present an increasing risk that must be dealt with. Physical Random Functions (or PUF as in Physical Unclonable Function), which are a tamper resistant way of establishing shared secrets with a physical device are introduced. They rely on the inevitable manufacturing variations between devices to produce an unclonable identity for a device. PUFs can be used directly for authenticated identification applications such as key cards and smart cards. In current smartcards, it is possible for someone who is in possession of the smartcard to produce a clone of it, by extracting its digital key information through one of many well-documented attacks. With a unique PUF on the smartcard that can be used to authenticate the chip, a digital key is not required; the smartcard hardware is itself the secret key. To enable more sophisticated applications, Controlled Physical Random Functions (CPUFs) which are PUFs that can only be accessed via an algorithm that is physically bound to the PUF in an inseparable way are introduced. CPUFs can be used to establish a shared secret between a physical device and a remote user. Once established, the shared secret can be used to enable a wide range of applications, including certified execution and intellectual property protection.