A Review—Hardware Security Using PUF (Physical Unclonable Function)

Abstract

With the increasing growth in electronic devices, there is equal importance for the circuit to be secured. Thus, hardware security is of great concern. In addition, many attacks have been developed every day. Hence, we need to design a PUF based system which helps us to reduce counterfeiting and avoids cloning of the circuit. A PUF (Physical Unclonable Function) is basically an external device placed in a circuit to avoid cloning. PUF’s are easy to evaluate but rather hard to predict. PUF system is designed in such a way that even the manufacturer himself cannot create two copies or clones with same functionality. A PUF circuit promises easy authentication, is robust and has a unique feature that cloning cannot be done. A PUF circuit is considered very important in ongoing market as it has many applications like a circuit identifier, secret key generation and even to generate TRNG (true random number generator). This review discusses about attacks on the chip and concludes with what preventive measures that can be taken to stop cloning of circuits.