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Microcontroller Fingerprinting Using Partially Erased NOR Flash Memory Cells

Microcontroller Fingerprinting Using Partially Erased NOR Flash Memory Cells Electronic device fingerprints, unique bit vectors extracted from device's physical properties, are used to differentiate between instances of functionally identical devices. This article introduces a new technique that extracts fingerprints from unique properties of partially erased NOR flash memory cells in modern microcontrollers. NOR flash memories integrated in modern systems-on-a-chip typically hold firmware and read-only data, but they are increasingly in-system-programmable, allowing designers to erase and program them during normal operation. The proposed technique leverages partial erase operations of flash memory segments that bring them into the state that exposes physical properties of the flash memory cells through a digital interface. These properties reflect semiconductor process variations and defects that are unique to each microcontroller or a flash memory segment within a microcontroller. The article explores threshold voltage variation in NOR flash memory cells for generating fingerprints and describes an algorithm for extracting fingerprints. The experimental evaluation utilizing a family of commercial microcontrollers demonstrates that the proposed technique is cost-effective, robust, and resilient to changes in voltage and temperature as well as to aging effects. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png ACM Transactions on Embedded Computing Systems (TECS) Association for Computing Machinery

Microcontroller Fingerprinting Using Partially Erased NOR Flash Memory Cells

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References (30)

Publisher
Association for Computing Machinery
Copyright
Copyright © 2021 ACM
ISSN
1539-9087
eISSN
1558-3465
DOI
10.1145/3448271
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Electronic device fingerprints, unique bit vectors extracted from device's physical properties, are used to differentiate between instances of functionally identical devices. This article introduces a new technique that extracts fingerprints from unique properties of partially erased NOR flash memory cells in modern microcontrollers. NOR flash memories integrated in modern systems-on-a-chip typically hold firmware and read-only data, but they are increasingly in-system-programmable, allowing designers to erase and program them during normal operation. The proposed technique leverages partial erase operations of flash memory segments that bring them into the state that exposes physical properties of the flash memory cells through a digital interface. These properties reflect semiconductor process variations and defects that are unique to each microcontroller or a flash memory segment within a microcontroller. The article explores threshold voltage variation in NOR flash memory cells for generating fingerprints and describes an algorithm for extracting fingerprints. The experimental evaluation utilizing a family of commercial microcontrollers demonstrates that the proposed technique is cost-effective, robust, and resilient to changes in voltage and temperature as well as to aging effects.

Journal

ACM Transactions on Embedded Computing Systems (TECS)Association for Computing Machinery

Published: Mar 27, 2021

Keywords: NOR flash memory

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