Secure Authentication
First Claim
1. An authentication token device comprising:
- a hardware public physically unclonable function having operational characteristics capable of being characterized by parameters, wherein the parameters are affected by manufacturing variability for the hardware public physically unclonable function;
an input register for loading signals into the hardware public physically unclonable function; and
an output register for delivering result values from the hardware public physically unclonable function.
6 Assignments
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Accused Products
Abstract
Technologies are generally described for secure authentication tokens that employ hardware public physically unclonable functions. Each unique token can be implemented as hardware such that manufacturing variations provide measurable performance differences resulting in unique, unclonable devices or systems. For example, slight timing variations through a large number of logic gates may be used as a hardware public physically unclonable function of the authentication token. The authentication token can be characterized such that its physical characteristics may be publicly distributed to authenticators. Authenticators may then simulate the result from a particular input vector and then request the authentication token to generate the same result in a very short amount of time. The time may be specified such that the result could not be simulated by an imposter for a timely response.
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Citations
20 Claims
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1. An authentication token device comprising:
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a hardware public physically unclonable function having operational characteristics capable of being characterized by parameters, wherein the parameters are affected by manufacturing variability for the hardware public physically unclonable function; an input register for loading signals into the hardware public physically unclonable function; and an output register for delivering result values from the hardware public physically unclonable function. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
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8. A method for generating an authentication challenge response using a hardware public physically unclonable function, the method comprising:
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receiving initial values associated with the authentication challenge into an input register associated with the hardware public physically unclonable function; coupling logic signals corresponding to the initial values from the input register into the hardware public physically unclonable function; propagating the logic signals through the hardware public physically unclonable function so as to transform the logic signals; and receiving a signal to latch the transformed logic signals from the hardware public physically unclonable function into an output register. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
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15. A computer storage medium having computer-executable instructions stored thereon which, when executed by a computer system, cause the computer system to:
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receive information characterizing unique parameters associated with a hardware public physically unclonable function; formulate an authentication challenge to be posed to the hardware public physically unclonable function; simulate the hardware public physically unclonable function based on the information characterizing unique parameters to generate an expected result to the authentication challenge; offer the authentication challenge to an authentication device comprising the hardware public physically unclonable function; classify the authentication challenge as passed in response to receiving the expected result from the authentication device within a specified time period; and classify the authentication challenge as failed in response to not receiving the expected result from the authentication device within a specified time period.
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Specification