PUF-based Encryption Processor for the RFID Systems

The attacker can access the RFID systems illegally because authentication operations on the RFID systems are performed in wireless communication. Authentication methods based on the PUF were presented to defend attacks. Because these utilize Hash and AES, the cost is expensive for the low-cost RFID tag. In this paper, the PUF-based encryption processor and the low-cost RFID authentication protocol are proposed. The challenge-response pairs (PUF's input and output) are encrypted by the PUF's characteristics, not by Hash and AES. Besides, the encryption method is changed by the instruction code. Therefore, it is difficult for the attacker to analyze challenge-response pairs. The proposed scheme defends several kinds of attacks, which are physical, modeling, spoofing and location tracking attacks. We implemented the PUF-based encryption processor at low cost with small footprint and low power.