10 research outputs found
Anti-counterfeiting: Mixing the Physical and the Digital World
In this paper, we overview a set of desiderata for building digital
anti-counterfeiting technologies that rely upon the difficulty of
manufacturing randomized complex 3D objects. Then, we observe how
this set is addressed by RF-DNA, an anti-counterfeiting technology
recently proposed by DeJean and Kirovski. RF-DNA constructs
certificates of authenticity as random objects that exhibit
substantial uniqueness in the electromagnetic domain
Texture to the Rescue : Practical Paper Fingerprinting based on Texture Patterns
In this article, we propose a novel paper fingerprinting technique based on analyzing the translucent patterns revealed when a light source shines through the paper. These patterns represent the inherent texture of paper, formed by the random interleaving of wooden particles during the manufacturing process. We show that these patterns can be easily captured by a commodity camera and condensed into a compact 2,048-bit fingerprint code. Prominent works in this area (Nature 2005, IEEE S&P 2009, CCS 2011) have all focused on fingerprinting paper based on the paper "surface." We are motivated by the observation that capturing the surface alone misses important distinctive features such as the noneven thickness, random distribution of impurities, and different materials in the paper with varying opacities. Through experiments, we demonstrate that the embedded paper texture provides a more reliable source for fingerprinting than features on the surface. Based on the collected datasets, we achieve 0% false rejection and 0% false acceptance rates. We further report that our extracted fingerprints contain 807 degrees of freedom (DoF), which is much higher than the 249 DoF with iris codes (that have the same size of 2,048 bits). The high amount of DoF for texturebased fingerprints makes our method extremely scalable for recognition among very large databases; it also allows secure usage of the extracted fingerprint in privacy-preserving authentication schemes based on error correction techniques
Towards Secret-Free Security
While digital secret keys appear indispensable in
modern cryptography and security, they also routinely constitute
a main attack point of the resulting hardware systems. Some
recent approaches have tried to overcome this problem by simply
avoiding keys and secrets in vulnerable systems. To start with,
physical unclonable functions (PUFs) have demonstrated how
“classical keys”, i.e., permanently stored digital secret keys, can
be evaded, realizing security devices that might be called “classically
key-free”. Still, most PUFs induce certain types of physical
secrets deep in the hardware, whose disclosure to adversaries
breaks security as well. Examples include the manufacturing
variations that determine the power-up states of SRAM PUFs,
or the signal runtimes of Arbiter PUFs, both of which have been
extracted from PUF-hardware in practice, breaking security.
A second generation of physical security primitives, such a
SIMPLs/PPUFs and Unique Objects, recently has shown promise
to overcome this issue, however. Perhaps counterintuitively, they
would enable completely “secret-free” hardware, where adversaries
might inspect every bit and atom, and learn any information
present in any form in the hardware, without being able to break
security. This concept paper takes this situation as starting point,
and categorizes, formalizes, and surveys the currently emerging
areas of key-free and, more importantly, secret-free security. Our
treatment puts keys, secrets, and their respective avoidance into
the center of the currently emerging physical security methods.
It so aims to lay the foundations for future, secret-free security
hardware, which would be innately and provably immune against
any physical probing and key extraction
Linking Physical Objects to Their Digital Twins via Fiducial Markers Designed for Invisibility to Humans
The ability to label and track physical objects that are assets in digital representations of the world is foundational to many complex systems. Simple, yet powerful methods such as bar- and QR-codes have been highly successful, e.g. in the retail space, but the lack of security, limited information content and impossibility of seamless integration with the environment have prevented a large-scale linking of physical objects to their digital twins. This paper proposes to link digital assets created through building information modeling (BIM) with their physical counterparts using fiducial markers with patterns defined by cholesteric spherical reflectors (CSRs), selective retroreflectors produced using liquid crystal self-assembly. The markers leverage the ability of CSRs to encode information that is easily detected and read with computer vision while remaining practically invisible to the human eye. We analyze the potential of a CSR-based infrastructure from the perspective of BIM, critically reviewing the outstanding challenges in applying this new class of functional materials, and we discuss extended opportunities arising in assisting autonomous mobile robots to reliably navigate human-populated environments, as well as in augmented reality
Certifying Authenticity via Fiber-Infused Paper
A certificate of authenticity (COA) is an inexpensive physical object that has a random unique structure with high cost of near-exact reproduction. An additional requirement is that the uniqueness of COA’s random structure can be verified using an inexpensive device. Bauder was the first to propose COAs created as a randomized augmentation of a set of fibers into a transparent gluing material that randomly fixes once for all the position of the fibers within. In this paper, we propose a novel system for automated verification of fiber-based COAs and outline the key challenges in enabling high cost-efficiency of such a system. The key features of the new COA scanner are simplicity, reliability, lack of any moving components, and the ability to accurately identify exact positions of individual fibers infused in COA’s containing paper. The latter feature significantly increases the forging cost compared to trivial implementations of a COA scanner
Certifying Authenticity via Fiber-Infused Paper
this paper, we propose a novel systemfs automated verification of fiber-based COAs and outline the key challenges in enabling high cost-e#ciencyof such a system.The keyf.EG4F; of the new COA scanner are simplicity, reliability, lackof any moving components, and the ability to accurately identif exact positions of individual fibersinfEKF in COA's containing paper.The latterf eature significantly increases thef.KFEK cost compared to trivial implementations of a COA scanne
Optical scattering for security applications
Laser Surface Authentication (LSA) has emerged in recent years as a potentially disruptive tracking and authentication technology. A strong need for such a solution in a variety of industries drove the implementation of the technology faster than the scientific understanding could keep up. The drive to miniaturise and simplify, the need to be robust against real-world problems like damage and misuse, and not least, intellectual curiosity, make it clear that a firmer scientific footing is important as the technology matures.
Existing scattering and biometric work are reviewed, and LSA is introduced as a technology. The results of field-work highlight the restrictions which are encountered when the technology is applied. Analysis of the datasets collected in the trial provide, first, an indication of the performance of LSA under real-world conditions and, second, insight into the potential shortcomings of the technique.
Using the particulars of the current sensor’s geometry, the LSA signal is characterised. Measurements are made of the decorrelation of the signature with linear and rotational offsets, and it is concluded that while surface microstructure has a strong impact on the rate of decorrelation, this dependency is not driven by the surface’s feature size. A new series of experiments examine that same decorrelation for interference effects with different illumination conditions, and conclude that laser speckle is not an adequate explanation for the phenomenon.
The results of this experimental work inform a mathematical description of LSA based on a combination of existing bi-static scattering models used in physics and ray-tracing, which is implemented numerically. The results of the model are found to be a good fit to experimental work, and new predictions are made about LSA