Clone-Resistant Entities for Vehicular Security

Vehicular environment is exposed to many security threats such as illegal copying of software IP, counterfeiting of electronic and mechatronic components, and illegal tampering of digital data inside electronic control units (ECUs). The reason is mainly because ECUs are often easily to clone. Physical Unclonable Functions (PUFs) were proposed to be used in many applications such as secure memory-less key storage and devices identification. However, their usage for automotive security is still very limited due to their inconsistency and high implementation cost and complexity. This paper presents a novel VANET security architecture embedding a new consistent digital clone-resistant technology called Secret Unknown Cipher SUC as a physical security anchor. The paper addresses two sample use cases in software update and V2X link protocols fulfilling VANET security architecture and requirements. A secure Over-The-Air software update, and secure V2X communication demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed SUC technology. Since SUC concept is using pure consistent digital structures, it fits perfectly as a low-cost and robust technology in future vehicular IoT environment over the long lifetime of vehicular entities.