Authentication system and method

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10445531-B2
Application number	US-201615242475-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 19, 2016
Priority date	May 26, 2016
Publication date	Oct 15, 2019
Grant date	Oct 15, 2019

Abstract

A system for authenticating a circuit includes: a processor; and a memory, and the memory has stored thereon instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to: periodically measure physical characteristic data of the circuit, operational data of the circuit, and environmental data; periodically capture the measured data; generate a dynamic fingerprint based on an aggregation of the captured data, and the dynamic fingerprint is a compound data structure encapsulating the aggregated data; associate metadata with the dynamic fingerprint; and output the dynamic fingerprint as a physically unclonable function (PUF) of the circuit.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A system for authenticating a circuit comprising a transmitter and a receiver configured to communicate over a communication link, the system comprising:
a processor; and
a memory, wherein the memory has stored thereon instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to:
periodically measure physical characteristic data of the circuit, operational data of the circuit, and environmental data;
periodically capture the measured data from the communication link;
generate a dynamic fingerprint of a plurality of dynamic fingerprints based on an aggregation of the captured data;
generate metadata associated with the dynamic fingerprint, the metadata comprising information identifying circumstances under which the measured data was measured and identifying type and number of fingerprints to aggregate and when to aggregate;
generate a compound fingerprint comprising the dynamic fingerprints and the metadata; and
output the compound dynamic fingerprint as a physically unclonable function (PUF) of the circuit.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the instructions that cause the processor to generate the dynamic fingerprint comprise instructions for refining the captured data by applying a mask or a shaping function to the captured data.

3. The system of claim 2 , wherein the instructions that cause the processor to generate the dynamic fingerprint further comprise instructions for deriving statistics from the refined data by applying a statistical function to the refined data.

4. The system of claim 3 , wherein the instructions that cause the processor to generate the dynamic fingerprint further comprise instructions for refining the derived statistics by applying a mask or a shaping function to the derived statistics.

5. The system of claim 4 , wherein the instructions that cause the processor to generate the dynamic fingerprint further comprise instructions for applying a compression function or a hash function to the refined derived statistics.

6. The system of claim 1 , wherein the metadata comprises at least one of: a time when the measured data was captured, a capture sequence number, an associated dynamic fingerprint, and actual measured data.

7. The system of claim 1 , wherein the metadata comprises at least one of: rules for applying statistical analysis to the captured data, parameters for applying statistical analysis to the captured data, and attributes of the dynamic fingerprint.

8. The system of claim 1 , wherein the metadata comprises at least one of: an identifier of the circuit, an operation state of the circuit, and environmental information of the circuit.

9. The system of claim 1 , wherein the metadata is dynamically bound to the dynamic fingerprint.

10. The system of claim 1 , wherein the measured data comprises data corresponding to a modification of an operational state of the circuit or an environment surrounding the circuit, the modification being induced by an external source, and the instructions further cause the processor to update the dynamic fingerprint according to the modification.

11. The system of claim 1 , wherein the instructions further cause the processor to dynamically update the dynamic fingerprint according to successive sets of the captured data, and output the updated dynamic fingerprint as the PUF.

12. The system of claim 1 , wherein the circuit corresponds to a first Internet of Things (IoT) device in communication with a second IoT device, and the PUF is configured to confirm an identity of the first IoT device to the second IoT device.

13. A method of authenticating a circuit comprising a transmitter and a receiver configured to communicate over a communication link, the method comprising:
periodically measuring, by a processor, physical characteristic data of the circuit, operational data of the circuit, and environmental data;
periodically capturing, by the processor, the measured data from the communication link;
generating, by the processor, a dynamic fingerprint of a plurality of dynamic fingerprints based on an aggregation of the captured data;
generating, by the processor, metadata associated with the dynamic fingerprint, the metadata comprising information circumstances under which measured data was measured and identifying type and number of fingerprints to aggregate and when to aggregate;
generating, by the processor, a compound fingerprint comprising the dynamic fingerprints and the metadata; and
outputting, by the processor, the compound dynamic fingerprint as a physically unclonable function (PUF) of the circuit.

14. The method of claim 13 , wherein generating the dynamic fingerprint comprises refining, by the processor, the captured data by applying a mask or a shaping function to the captured data.

15. The method of claim 14 , wherein generating the dynamic fingerprint further comprises deriving, by the processor, statistics from the refined data by applying a statistical function to the refined data.

16. The method of claim 15 , wherein generating the dynamic fingerprint further comprises refining, by the processor, the derived statistics by applying a mask or a shaping function to the derived statistics.

17. The method of claim 16 , wherein generating the dynamic fingerprint further comprises applying, by the processor, a compression function or a hash function to the refined derived statistics.

18. The method of claim 13 , wherein the metadata comprises at least one of: a time when the measured data was captured, a capture sequence number, an associated dynamic fingerprint, and actual measured data.

19. The method of claim 13 , wherein the metadata comprises at least one of: rules for applying statistical analysis to the captured data, parameters for applying statistical analysis to the captured data, and attributes of the dynamic fingerprint.

20. The method of claim 13 , wherein the metadata comprises at least one of: an identifier of the circuit, an operation state of the circuit, and environmental information of the circuit.

21. The method of claim 13 , wherein the metadata is dynamically bound to the dynamic fingerprint.

22. The method of claim 14 , wherein the measured data comprises data corresponding to a modification of an operational state of the circuit or an environment surrounding the circuit, the modification being induced by an external source, and the method further comprises updating, by the processor, the dynamic fingerprint according to the modification.

23. The method of claim 13 , further comprising dynamically updating, by the processor, the dynamic fingerprint according to successive sets of the captured data.

24. The method of claim 13 , wherein the circuit corresponds to a first Internet of Things (IoT) device in communication with a second IoT device, and the PUF is configured to confirm an identity of the first IoT device to the second IoT device.

25. A physically unclonable function (PUF) circuit for identifying an assembly, the PUF circuit comprising:
a transmitter;
a receiver configured to communicate with the transmitter over a communication link;
a processor; and
a memory, wherein the memory has stored thereon instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to:
periodically measure physical characteristic data of the assembly, operational data of the assembly, and environmental data;
periodically capture the measured data from the communication li

Assignees

• Raytheon Co

Inventors

• Jennings William T
• Hoffman John
• Craig Johnathan W

Classifications

• H04L9/0866

  involving user or device identifiers, e.g. serial number, physical or biometrical information, DNA, hand-signature or measurable physical characteristics · CPC title

• H04L9/3278

  using physically unclonable functions [PUF] · CPC title

• G06F21/83 Primary

  input devices, e.g. keyboards, mice or controllers thereof · CPC title

• H04L67/12

  specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks · CPC title

• H04L9/3236

  using cryptographic hash functions · CPC title