Entropy Estimation of Physically Unclonable Functions via Chow Parameters

Alexander Schaub, Olivier Rioul, Joseph J. Boutros

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

Abstract

A physically unclonable function (PUF) is an electronic circuit that produces an intrinsic identifier in response to a challenge. These identifiers depend on uncontrollable variations of the manufacturing process, which make them hard to predict or to replicate. Various security protocols leverage on such intrinsic randomness for authentification, cryptographic key generation, anti-counterfeiting, etc. Evaluating the entropy of PUFs (for all possible challenges) allows one to assess the security properties of such protocols. In this paper, we estimate the probability distribution of certain kinds of PUFs composed of n delay elements. This is used to evaluate relevant Rényi entropies and determine how they increase with n. Such a problem was known to have extremely high complexity (in the order of 2 {2 {n}}) and previous entropy estimations were carried out up to n = 7. Making the link with the theory of Boolean threshold functions, we leverage on the representation by Chow parameters to estimate probability distributions up to n=10. The resulting Shannon entropy of the PUF is close to the max-entropy, which is asymptotically quadratic in n.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publication2019 57th Annual Allerton Conference on Communication, Control, and Computing, Allerton 2019
PublisherInstitute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
Pages698-704
Number of pages7
ISBN (Electronic)9781728131511
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Sept 2019
Event57th Annual Allerton Conference on Communication, Control, and Computing, Allerton 2019 - Monticello, United States
Duration: 24 Sept 201927 Sept 2019

Publication series

Name2019 57th Annual Allerton Conference on Communication, Control, and Computing, Allerton 2019

Conference

Conference57th Annual Allerton Conference on Communication, Control, and Computing, Allerton 2019
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityMonticello
Period24/09/1927/09/19

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