Lightweight hardware fingerprinting solution using inherent memory in off-the-shelf commodity devices

• Main Authors: Mispan, Mohd Syafiq, Jidin, Aiman Zakwan, Mohd Nasir, Haslinah, Kamarudin, Muhammad Raihaan
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Institute Of Advanced Engineering And Science (IAES) 2022
• Online Access: http://eprints.utem.edu.my/id/eprint/26271/2/2022_LIGHTWEIGHT%20HARDWARE%20FINGERPRINTING%20SOLUTION%20USING%20INHERENT%20MEMORY%20IN%20OFF-THE-SHELF%20COMMODITY%20DEVICES.PDF; http://eprints.utem.edu.my/id/eprint/26271/; https://ijeecs.iaescore.com/index.php/IJEECS/article/view/24637

An emerging technology known as Physical unclonable function (PUF) can provide a hardware root-of-trust in building the trusted computing system. PUF exploits the intrinsic process variations during the integrated circuit (IC) fabrication to generate a unique response. This unique response differs from one PUF to the other similar type of PUFs. Static random-access memory PUF (SRAM-PUF) is one of the memorybased PUFs in which the response is generated during the memory power-up process. Non-volatile memory (NVM) architecture like SRAM is available in off-the-shelf microcontroller devices. Exploiting the inherent SRAM as PUF could wide-spread the adoption of PUF. Therefore, in this study, we evaluate the suitability of inherent SRAM available in ATMega2560 microcontroller on Arduino platform as PUF that can provide a unique fingerprint. First, we analyze the start-up values (SUVs) of memory cells and select only the cells that show random values after the power-up process. Subsequently, we statistically analyze the characteristic of fifteen SRAM-PUFs which include uniqueness, reliability, and uniformity. Based on our findings, the SUVs of fifteen on-chip SRAMs achieve 42.64% uniqueness, 97.28% reliability, and 69.16% uniformity. Therefore, we concluded that the available SRAM in off-the-shelf commodity hardware has good quality to be used as PUF.