SEPUFSoC: Using PUFs for Memory Integrity and Authentication in Multi-Processors System-on-Chip

A persistent problem for modern Multi-Processors System-on-Chip (MPSoCs) is their vulnerability to code injection attacks. By tampering with the memory content, attackers are able to extract secrets from the MPSoC and to modify or deny the MPSoC's operation. This work proposes SEPUFSoC (Secure PUF-based SoC), a novel flexible, secure, and fast architecture able to be integrated into any MPSoC. SEPUFSoC prevents execution of unauthorized code as well as data manipulation by ensuring memory integrity and authentication. SEPUFSoC achieves: i) efficiency, through the integration of a fast and lightweight hash function for Message Authentication Code (MAC) generation and integrity verification of the memory lines at runtime; and ii) lightweight security, through the use of a Physical Unclonable Function (PUF) to securely generate and store the cryptographic keys that are used for the authentication of each application. We discuss the security and performance of SEPUFSoC for single core and multi-core systems. Results show that the SEPUFSoC is a secure, fast, and low overhead solution for MPSoCs.