@CSIT_QUB

Physical Unclonable Functions (PUFs) for Smart Meter Security

Chongyan Gu1, Neil Hanley1, Gavin McWilliams1 Robert Hesselbarth 2 and Martin Hutle 2

1 The Centre for Secure Information Technologies, Queen’s University Belfast, Belfast, UK

2 Fraunhofer Institute AISE, Germany

2016

The Internet of Things

* source: http://www.marketsonline.co.za/ready-connected-home/* source: http://www.wired.com/2015/07/hackers-remotely-kill-jeep-highway/

* source: http://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2013/07/26/smart-homes-hack/

* source: http://www.forbes.com/sites/aarontilley/2015/03/06/nest-thermostat-hack-home-network/

* source: https://www.wired.com/2016/08/oh-good-new-hack-can-unlock-100-million-volkswagens/

Trust & Identity of Digital Devices?

Low power devices

Crypto traditionally computationally complex

High connectivity

A low-end device can be attacked to access the whole system

Untrusted supply chains - conterfeiting

Effective device authentication mechanism is important to ensure

secure access to networks

How to ensure your devices only connect to trustworthy devices?

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A PUF (Physical Unclonable Function) is a circuit that uses manufacturing process variations to generate a unique digital fingerprint

What is a Physical Unclonable Function?

What is a Physical Unclonable Function?

A PUF (Physical Unclonable Function) is a circuit that uses manufacturing process variations to generate a unique digital fingerprint

823snni9efdesghk

zxmnvposfj6drkdj

sadnngdisdrnt93q

qwrwsle03xzowhjd

What is a Physical Unclonable Function?

A PUF (Physical Unclonable Function) is a circuit that uses manufacturing process variations to generate a unique digital fingerprint

sadnngdisdrnt93q

9j575768hjfhfhdd

5uvjreig8uhrsfxq

ncs0956jynfkidid

vndbwvcvvdm38856

What is a Physical Unclonable Function?

A PUF (Physical Unclonable Function) is a circuit that uses manufacturing process variations to generate a unique digital fingerprint

sadnngdisdrnt93q

9j575768hjfhfhdd

823snni9efdesghk

qwrwsle03xzowhjd

zxmnvposfj6drkdj

Why PUFs?

PUFs can generate unique and secure keys/IDs

Memoryless key storage Easy to evaluate Inherently tamper resistant Hard to predict

PUFs provide a low cost security scheme

Inherent manufacturing variations No extra fabrication cost

4

PUFs for SPARKS project

How can PUFs help in protecting smart meters?

• high level of security without protected non-volatile memory (NVM) - Secure

• light-weight authentication – Low-cost

PUF Testbed Architecture

234 PUF nodes (Basys3 board)• 1 PUF instance per node

4 gateways

• Up to 60 PUF nodes per gateway

1 host server

• Multiple users login remotely via SSH to use cluster

• Operate PUF nodes remotely via network

10

Digilent Basys3 FPGA

PUF Testbed Implementation

11

4 Modules

• 60 Basys-3 boards(PUF node)

• 10 7-port USB hubs

• 1 Raspberry Pi(Gateway)

• 1 power supply

Results

Uniqueness

• PicoPUF

Robustness

PicoPUF Ideal

Uniqueness 48% 50%

Robustness 98% 100%

Resource Usage

• PicoPUF

To implement PicoPUF on Xilinx Artix-7 FPGA, the hardware resource consumption is less than 1%.

Conclusions

• PUFs are introduced and highlighted for the application to SPARKS project as the following significant advantages• Generate any time• No need to store in memory• Ideal for high-level security

• PUF testbed and architectures are setup to evaluate different PUFs.

• PUF could be potentially used as a low-cost solution not only for smart meters but also many other IoT security applications.

Thank you! Questions ????