Use of Thermistor Temperature Sensors for Cyber-Physical System Security

Area of Science:

• Computer Science
• Electrical Engineering
• Cybersecurity

Background:

• Cyber-physical systems and Internet of Things (IoT) devices are rapidly expanding.
• Resource constraints in IoT devices hinder the implementation of traditional security measures.
• Physically Unclonable Functions (PUFs) offer a promising hardware-based security solution by leveraging manufacturing variations.

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose a novel weak PUF design for IoT security.
• To utilize intrinsic variations in thermistor temperature sensors for security provisioning.
• To develop a reliable PUF solution resilient to environmental factors.

Main Methods:

• Designed a weak PUF utilizing the resistance variations of thermistor temperature sensors.
• Developed a response-generation algorithm to mitigate temperature-induced variations.
• Evaluated PUF performance under various environmental conditions (temperature, humidity).
• Assessed PUF reliability and uniqueness using Monte Carlo simulations.

Main Results:

• The proposed thermistor-based PUF demonstrated reliable performance across a range of temperatures and humidity levels.
• Monte Carlo simulations confirmed the uniqueness of the generated PUF responses.
• The design effectively mitigates environmental variations, ensuring consistent security provisioning.

Conclusions:

• Thermistor-based PUFs present a viable and novel approach for securing resource-constrained IoT devices.
• The proposed PUF design offers a robust and reliable security solution leveraging existing sensor components.
• This research contributes to advancing hardware security for the growing landscape of IoT devices.