An Anti-Electromagnetic Attack PUF Based on a Configurable Ring Oscillator for Wireless Sensor Networks

Area of Science:

• Computer Science
• Electrical Engineering
• Cybersecurity

Background:

• Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) face significant security challenges due to limited resources and physical vulnerability.
• Storing secret keys in non-volatile memory is a security risk for WSN sensor nodes.
• Ring Oscillator Physical Unclonable Functions (RO PUFs) offer a promising solution for secure key generation without non-volatile memory.

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose a novel, hardware-efficient, and secure RO PUF architecture for WSNs.
• To enhance the resistance of RO PUFs against electromagnetic (EM) analysis attacks.
• To validate the performance and security of the proposed RO PUF through experimental evaluation.

Main Methods:

• Developed a configurable RO PUF architecture utilizing exclusive-or (XOR) gates.
• Implemented a unique physical layout for adjacent RO arrays (cosine and sine wave arrangement) to obscure individual RO frequencies.
• Deployed the RO PUF on XILINX A-7 Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) for testing.

Main Results:

• The proposed RO PUF demonstrates significantly improved hardware efficiency compared to existing RO PUF designs.
• The novel array placement effectively mitigates vulnerability to EM analysis attacks.
• Experimental results confirm that the generated responses pass NIST statistical tests and exhibit excellent uniqueness and reliability across various environmental conditions.

Conclusions:

• The proposed configurable RO PUF architecture is highly suitable for establishing robust key extraction mechanisms in WSNs.
• The design addresses critical security concerns including hardware efficiency, resistance to physical attacks, and reliable key generation.
• This work contributes a practical and secure solution for protecting sensitive data in resource-constrained WSN environments.