PUFs at a glance

Physical Unclonable Functions (PUFs) are a new, hardware-based security primitive, which has been introduced just about a decade ago. In this paper, we provide a brief and easily accessible overview of the area. We describe the typical security features, implementations, attacks, protocols uses, and applications of PUFs. Special focus is placed on the two most prominent PUF types, so-called “Weak PUFs” and “Strong PUFs”, and their mutual differences.