Chaos-Based Physical Unclonable Functions

Abstract

The concept presented in this paper fits into the current trend of highly secured hardware authentication designs utilizing Physically Unclonable Functions (PUFs) or Physical Obfuscated Keys (POKs). We propose an idea that the PUF cryptographic keys can be derived from a chaotic circuit. We point out that the chaos theory should be explored for the sake of PUFs as a natural mechanism of amplifying random process variations of digital circuits. We prove the idea based on a novel design of a chaotic circuit, which utilizes time in a feedback loop as an analog continuous variable in a purely digital system. Our design is small and simple, and therefore feasible to implement in inexpensive reprogrammable devices (not equipped with digital clock manager, programmable delay line, phase locked loop, RAM/ROM memory, etc.). Preliminary tests proved that the chaotic circuit PUFs work in both advanced Field-Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) as well as simple Complex Programmable Logic Devices (CPLDs). We showed that different PUF challenges (slightly different implementations based on variations in elements placement and/or routing) have provided significantly different keys generated within one CPLD/FPGA device. On the other hand, the same PUF challenges used in a different CPLD/FPGA instance (programmed with precisely the same bit-stream resulting in exactly the same placement and routing) have enhanced differences between devices resulting in different cryptographic keys.