Optical PUFs as physical root of trust for blockchain‐driven applications

Abstract

In an environment where cyber attacks are increasing, both in frequency and complexity, novel ways to shield data, users, and procedures have to be envisioned. Physical unclonable functions (PUFs) are the physical equivalent of one-way mathematical transformations with the exception that their inherent physical complexity renders them resilient to cloning. One interesting deployment scenario includes PUFs as random key generators. The deterministic nature of their operation alleviates the necessity to store the keys in non-volatile means. Along the same lines, blockchain is inherently resistant to modification of the data once stored while their overall security depends on the quality and secrecy of users' keys. Here, the authors propose a novel optical PUF implementation that can be combined with private blockchain modalities in order to cyber-harden Internet of things ecosystems. PUF-related experimental results are presented, alongside implementation scenarios.

Secure Combination of IoT and Blockchain by Physically Binding IoT Devices to Smart Non-Fungible Tokens Using PUFs

“…Fuzzy extractors are employed in authentication protocols that verify that only the authentic device is able to recover the cryptographic key from the obfuscated stored data. In this way, in [ 27 , 28 ], the authentication procedure of an IoT device was based on checking if the cryptographic key is correctly recovered by the PUF. In [ 27 ], optical PUFs were employed in private blockchains.…”

“…In this way, in [ 27 , 28 ], the authentication procedure of an IoT device was based on checking if the cryptographic key is correctly recovered by the PUF. In [ 27 ], optical PUFs were employed in private blockchains. In [ 28 ], SRAM PUFs inside microcontroller-based devices were employed in zero-knowledge protocols.…”

Recent Advances in Photonic Physical Unclonable Functions

“…a surface of few mm 2 ). The first such implementation at a preproduction level was reported in [42], [43] and was tested successfully for a period of six months continuously in the framework of the EU R&D project SMILE [44]. Fig.…”

Reinforcement Learning in Blockchain-Enabled IIoT Networks: A Survey of Recent Advances and Open Challenges

“…They propose the integration of IoT with blockchain that uses a physical address inside a semiconductor chip mounted into an IIoT device. Furthermore, the authors in [49] present a new dimension to PUFs and introduce optical PUFs as a physical trust root for blockchain-based applications. They stress that optical PUFs (o-PUFs) can be successfully used as random number generators to generate bit strings.…”