- Flash memory is now coupled with secure key storage using the cache and revelation method
- Standard commercial hidden encryption keys
- Automatic learning attacks have failed to guess the keys, showing the real randomness and safety
While the volume of digital data continues to grow with the rise of AI, cloud services and connected devices, the security of these data has become increasingly difficult.
Traditional protections based on passwords are no longer sufficient, and although material security solutions such as implicable physical functions (PUF) offer stronger protection, they had difficult with real deployment.
Most PUFs require personalized equipment and cannot hide the keys when they are not used, leaving the systems exposed.
Unique and unpredictable
A Seoul National University research team introduced a new material security approach entitled Caclable PUF. This method uses the commercial Flash Nand 3D memory, generally found in traditional storage devices, to create a secure storage and hiding place for encryption keys.
What distinguishes it is its ability to hide a key under user data and reveal it only if necessary. The technique has recently been published in Nature communications.
Key innovation implies a low application of the GIDL erasure process (drain leak induced by the door). This stimulates the variation between memory cells, which makes the characteristics of each unique and unpredictable chip.
These variations can be used to generate PUF data which serves as a secure and inclusive key.
With this approach, no structural or circuit modification is required. The method works directly with standard V Flash memory in V, which makes it easier to evolve.
This could potentially allow the safety of the equipment to be implemented in the consumer electronics of everyday public without additional cost or complexity.
The University claims that hidden PUFs have passed stress tests that included large temperature ranges and more than 10 million reading cycles. It also resisted attacks based on automatic learning, which could not predict the key beyond the levels of random riddles.
Impressive, the key could be hidden and revealed more than 100 times without any error, presenting the stability of the system.
Professor Jong-Ho Lee, who led the project, said: “The disabled PUF stands out from its creativity and its practicality, because it uses the vertical vertical technology of Flash Nand memory without modifications.”
The main author Sung-Ho Park added: “This research is significant because it shows how PUF can be implemented using the erasure functioning of the existing flash V-Nand memory without modifying the circuits or design. By allowing selective exposure of the safety key, our method opens up new possibilities to improve the safety and efficiency of memory.”
The team plans to extend this technology to other material -oriented material solutions, targeting industries such as IoT, Mobile and Automotive electronics.
Via Techxplore
