Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2023 Jul 28;23(15):6769.
doi: 10.3390/s23156769.

Microcontroller-Based PUF for Identity Authentication and Tamper Resistance of Blockchain-Compliant IoT Devices

Davor Vinko  1 , Kruno Miličević  1 , Ivica Lukić  1 , Mirko Köhler  1
Affiliations

Microcontroller-Based PUF for Identity Authentication and Tamper Resistance of Blockchain-Compliant IoT Devices

Davor Vinko et al. Sensors (Basel). .

Abstract

Blockchain-based applications necessitate the authentication of connected devices if they are employed as blockchain oracles. Alongside identity authentication, it is crucial to ensure resistance against tampering, including safeguarding against unauthorized alterations and protection against device counterfeiting or cloning. However, attaining these functionalities becomes more challenging when dealing with resource-constrained devices like low-cost IoT devices. The resources of IoT devices depend on the capabilities of the microcontroller they are built around. Low-cost devices utilize microcontrollers with limited computational power, small memory capacity, and lack advanced features such as a dedicated secure cryptographic chip. This paper proposes a method employing a Physical Unclonable Function (PUF) to authenticate identity and tamper resistance in IoT devices. The suggested PUF relies on a microcontroller's internal pull-up resistor values and, in conjunction with the microcontroller's built-in analog comparator, can also be utilized for device self-checking. A main contribution of this paper is the proposed PUF method which calculates the PUF value as the average value of many single PUF measurements, resulting in a significant increase in accuracy. The proposed PUF has been implemented successfully in a low-cost microcontroller device. Test results demonstrate that the device, specifically the microcontroller chip, can be identified with high accuracy (99.98%), and the proposed PUF method exhibits resistance against probing attempts.

Keywords: authentication; blockchain; internet of things; physical unclonable function.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest. The funders had no role in the study’s design; in the collection, analyses, or interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript; or in the decision to publish the results.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Schematic of proposed PUF.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Voltage waveforms for a PUF measurement, UC1 (blue trace), UC2 (purple trace), R1 = 10 kΩ, C1 = 47 nF, R2 = 100 kΩ, C2 = 2 nF.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Voltage waveforms during consecutive PUF measurements, UC1 (blue trace), UC2 (purple trace), R1 = 10 kΩ, C1 = 47 nF, R2 = 100 kΩ, C2 = 2 nF.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Devices under test (DUTs) are used for measurements.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Device #20 is connected to the RC network on the protoboard.
Figure 6
Figure 6
PUF value range (line) and average value (dot) for each DUT with 1000 PUF measurements.
Figure 7
Figure 7
Set of 1000 PUF measurements for a single device.
Figure 8
Figure 8
PUF value range (line) and average value (dot) for each DUT with 100,000 PUF measurements.
Figure 9
Figure 9
Measured PUFs for all test devices (#1–#20); 100 measurements with batch size = 1000.
Figure 10
Figure 10
Measured PUFs for a single device (#20) in different scenarios; 100 measurements with batch size = 1000.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Sey C., Lei H., Qian W., Li X., Fiasam L.D., Kodjiku S.L., Adjei-Mensah I., Agyemang I.O. VBlock: A Blockchain-Based Tamper-Proofing Data Protection Model for Internet of Vehicle Networks. Sensors. 2022;22:8083. doi: 10.3390/s22208083. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Roman A.-S., Genge B., Duka A.-V., Haller P. Privacy-Preserving Tampering Detection in Automotive Systems. Electronics. 2021;10:3161. doi: 10.3390/electronics10243161. - DOI
    1. Alyahya S., Khan W.U., Ahmed S., Marwat S.N.K., Habib S. Cyber Secure Framework for Smart Agriculture: Robust and Tamper-Resistant Authentication Scheme for IoT Devices. Electronics. 2022;11:963. doi: 10.3390/electronics11060963. - DOI
    1. Grecuccio J., Giusto E., Fiori F., Rebaudengo M. Combining Blockchain and IoT: Food-Chain Traceability and Beyond. Energies. 2020;13:3820. doi: 10.3390/en13153820. - DOI
    1. Cano-Quiveu G., Ruiz-De-Clavijo-Vazquez P., Bellido M.J., Juan-Chico J., Viejo-Cortes J., Guerrero-Martos D., Ostua-Aranguena E. Embedded LUKS (E-LUKS): A Hardware Solution to IoT Security. Electronics. 2021;10:3036. doi: 10.3390/electronics10233036. - DOI

LinkOut - more resources