Anti-Counterfeiting & Secure ID/Access
Anti-counterfeiting applications must have a robust mechanism to authenticate any “thing” in the field. Counterfeiters should not be able to clone the mechanism or fool the system. Commonly used authentication mechanisms used today, such as holograms, color-shifting inks, special printing etc., have been shown to be largely ineffective. RFID tags have been used recently for anti-counterfeiting, but basic RFID tags are equally prone to cloning and replay attacks. Some advanced cryptography based RFID tags offer more security, but they are too expensive to be used at the item level in high volume.
Verayo's PUFs based unclonable RFID tags offer a cost-effective anti-counterfeiting solution. Nobody can clone the Verayo RFID chip, and the chip can be authenticated anywhere/any-time in the field.
Verayo unclonable RFIDs can prevent counterfeiting of high-value goods in markets such as:
- Luxury goods
- Pharmaceuticals
- Government documents, including things like currency notes
- Secure IDs (driver’s ID cards, passports, border security cards)
- Secure facility access cards
Verayo anti-counterfeiting solution can also operate in non-RF or wired mode. Verayo's PUF technology can be embedded in any kind of integrated circuit device. PUF technology makes these devices:
- Unclonable
- Capable of authenticating themselves
Verayo Unclonable RFIDs
Verayo's first unclonable RFID IC, the Vera X512H, includes advanced PUF technology for authentication and security. While the PUF can operate at any commonly used RF frequencies such as LF, HF, UHF, the Vera X512H operates at HF 13.56 Mhz. Key features of the Vera X512H chip:- Unclonable
- Authentication using challenge response pairs
- Unlimited number of challenge response pairs for each chip
- Configurable challenge response bit length - 64 bit, 128 bit, 256 bit
- Resistance to replay attacks
- ISO 14443-A compliant, HF 13.56 operating frequency
- 512 bit user memory
- Anti-collision for simultaneous operations on several chips
Verayo Embedded PUFs
Just like RFIDs, PUFs can be embedded in all kinds of semiconductor ICs that require anti-counterfeiting and authentication functionality. These could be memory chips, processor chips, smart card ICs and authentication tokens that can benefit from the PUF unclonability and authentication feature.
Solution Overview
PUF based RFID uses the PUF challenge response protocol for authentication.
In the figure above a PUF based unclonable RFID is attached to each product at a secure location, perhaps at the manufacturing facility. Just as in case of passive RFID tags, a unique identifier, such as an EPC code, is written on to the PUF RFID tag. Additionally, for each PUF RFID tag a challenge response pair database is created. The size of the database (# of challenge response pairs) is configurable, to suit the application and the number of authentication events expected for each tag. The RFID tag id or EPC code can be used to index this database. The creation of this challenge response database is not a time consuming process, and can be scheduled to suit the manufacturing environment constraints.
Now to authenticate any given RFID tag in the field, the RFID tag id or EPC code is read, sent over to the secure database storing challenge response pairs. One of the challenges is presented to the RFID chip. If the response matches the one stored in the secure database, the RFID chip is authentic. To prevent replay attacks, each challenge and response pair is used only once.
Verayo RFID tags can be read by industry standard RFID readers available in various form factors, such as check-out units, PDAs and even mobile phones.
PUF Advantages — RFID and Embedded
