Autonomous Physical Secret Functions and Clone-Resistant Identification

Self configuring VLSI technology architectures offer a novel environment for creating particular security functions. Two physical security architectures are proposed to be generated autonomously as unknown/secret internal functions. A cell-based construction strategy for FPGA technology is proposed for self-constructing of two one-way physical secret functions representing a hash function and a ciphering function. The Hash function is a non-invertible one, where the cipher function is invertible. The architectures of the functions are inspired from the programmable cell structure of the selected FPGA technology. As the functions are internally created, their mapping structures can be kept completely unknown. Such units could be efficiently deployed for physical security even when nothing is known about their exact architecture and mapping functions. Several new attractive application scenarios are demonstrated including a type of zero-knowledge proof of identity and clone-resistant physical units as well as secured dependency functions. It is also shown that such security mechanisms can be kept operational even if the secret functions are allowed to evolve and gain consistent time dependent properties.