Abstract
Over the last two decades, hardware security has gained increasing attention in academia and industry. Flash memory has been given a spotlight in recent years, with the question of whether or not it can prove useful in a security role. Because of inherent process variation in the characteristics of flash memory modules, they can provide a unique fingerprint for a device and have thus been proposed as locations for hardware security primitives. These primitives include physical unclonable functions (PUFs), true random number generators (TRNGs), and integrated circuit (IC) counterfeit detection. In this paper, we evaluate the efficacy of flash memory-based security primitives and categorize them based on the process variations they exploit, as well as other features. We also compare and evaluate flash-based security primitives in order to identify drawbacks and essential design considerations. Finally, we describe new directions, challenges of research, and possible security vulnerabilities for flash-based security primitives that we believe would benefit from further exploration.
Highlights
Introduction and BackgroundAttacks on cyberinfrastructure and electronic devices become more and more advanced each year, costing companies and countries around the globe millions of dollars in time and resources
There are many challenges that remain before practical flash memory-based security solutions can be used
Flash memory is a great platform for security primitives as it is one of the most common forms of non-volatile memory used in industry
Summary
Attacks on cyberinfrastructure and electronic devices become more and more advanced each year, costing companies and countries around the globe millions of dollars in time and resources. While technology continues to grow in its omnipotence, the hardware devices themselves continue to shrink in size This has led to an increased interest in hardware-based security primitives, such as PUFs and TRNGs, because hardware implementations are less exposed to attackers than software ones. Intrinsic implementations, which do not require extra hardware components, have been proposed as a lightweight and cost-efficient basis for security solutions Both PUFs and TRNGs offer a promising solution in this regard, as they can provide authentication and validation that do not require heavy cryptographic measures and implementations [1,2,3,4]. Cryptography 2021, 5, 7 systematic classification, analysis, and assessment of works regarding flash-based security primitives We aim in this way to present a thorough and transparent overview of this field, provide clear insights, and collectivize the current and future trends. Flash memory is programmable, allowing for different programming techniques to obtain the most efficient security primitive construction, and the programming commands can be adapted over time to provide advanced features such as aging resilience
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