Public Key Authentication Apparatus for IoT Chip Size Reduction
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Solution Overview
Problem
In IoT environments, existing authentication systems face challenges in protecting user privacy and preventing unauthorized access to components, leading to potential data breaches and fake product creation due to the lack of a lightweight authentication apparatus that can effectively authenticate at both device and component levels.
Innovation Solution
An authentication apparatus based on a public key cryptosystem that includes a certificate handler, cryptographic primitives, and a shared memory, which generates and verifies challenges and responses, eliminating the need for a central processing unit (CPU) or nonvolatile memory by sharing resources among components.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If traditional authentication systems are used in IoT devices, then security and privacy protection are improved, but device complexity and memory requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The authentication system is divided into separate functional modules: a certificate handler for certificate management, cryptographic primitives for cryptographic operations, and a shared memory for data storage. This segmentation allows each module to be optimized independently, reducing overall complexity while maintaining security functionality.
Solution Approach 2:
The shared memory serves multiple functions by storing certificates, cryptographic keys, authentication data, and intermediate values for multiple authentication protocols. This multi-functionality eliminates the need for separate dedicated memory areas for each authentication operation, significantly reducing total memory requirements.
2Device complexity
If lightweight authentication apparatus is implemented, then device complexity is reduced, but authentication security may be compromised
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines the certificate handler, cryptographic primitives, and shared memory into an integrated authentication apparatus that can be implemented on a single chip. This merging reduces chip size and complexity while maintaining complete authentication security functionality through coordinated operation of the integrated components.
Solution Approach 2:
The shared memory acts as an intermediary between the certificate handler and cryptographic primitives, enabling efficient data exchange and coordination. This intermediary structure allows the lightweight apparatus to maintain secure authentication by facilitating proper sequencing and management of cryptographic operations without requiring complex control logic.
Data Source
AI summary
An authentication apparatus, included in a device supporting a network communication, includes a certificate handler that receives a certificate of an opponent and parses or verifies the certificate of the opponent. Cryptographic primitives receive an authentication request of the opponent, generate a random number in response to the authentication request, generate a challenge corresponding to the random number, and verify a response of the opponent corresponding to the challenge. A shared memory stores the parsed certificate, the random number, the challenge, and the response. An authentication controller controls the certificate handler, the cryptographic primitives, and the shared memory through a register setting, according to an authentication protocol.