Research Overview
The past decade has witnessed a remarkable growth of services that rely on or involve mobile and wearable devices. The increasingly network-connected nature of these devices, coupled with more and more sensitive and confidential data placed online, has led to an unprecedented level of security and privacy concerns. Due to the energy, cost, and size constraints of these devices, existing security measures often turn out to be impractical. Furthermore, unlike general-purpose computing systems, mobile and embedded systems have unique usage and security models where a “one-size-fits-all” solution does not exist.
The aim of our research is to develop innovative hardware-oriented security solutions for low-power mobile, wearable, and implantable devices with these specific goals:
- Understanding application- and system-specific security challenges.
- Analyzing the trade-offs among security, usability, and utilization.
- Designing security measures for energy-, cost-, and size-constrained devices.
CamPUF: Image-sensor physically unclonable function
CamPUF is a physical unclonable function (PUF) based on commercial off-the-shelf CMOS image sensors, which are ubiquitously available in almost all mobile devices. The inherent process mismatch between pixel sensors and readout circuits in an image sensor manifests as unique fixed pattern noise (FPN) in the image. We exploit FPN caused by dark signal non-uniformity (DSNU) as the basis for implementing the PUF. DSNU can be extracted only from dark images that are not shared with others, and only the legitimate user can obtain it with full control of the image sensor. Compared to other FPN components that can be extracted from shared images, DSNU facilitates more secure and usable device authentication. An efficient and reliable key generation procedure for use in wireless low-power devices is proposed.
We have implemented CamPUF on Google Nexus 5X and Nexus 5 and evaluated the uniqueness and robustness of the keys, as well as its security against counterfeiting. We have demonstrated that the proposed method generates stable random keys that are clearly discriminative even between the same models at various temperatures. We have also demonstrated that the adversary is not able to derive the correct key from JPEG-compressed images even if the adversary can obtain multiple high-quality images similar to a dark frame.
SecureVibe & SyncVibe: Vibration-based secure communication
Secure close-proximity communication is a daunting challenge in many mobile and IoT applications, ranging from mobile-to-peripheral communication to implantable medical device telemetry. For example, pairing is a process for exchanging device information, e.g., name, address and cryptographic key, to establish a wireless link between a new pair of devices. Unfortunately, even in the latest wireless standards, the lack of an intuitive and simple device pairing method significantly degrades the user experience. Another example is implantable medical devices (IMDs) like pacemakers. Wireless communication is becoming common in IMDs, and while cryptography and secure communication protocols may be used to address most known attacks, the lack of a viable secure connection establishment and key exchange mechanism is a fundamental challenge that needs to be addressed.
SecureVibe and SyncVibe are a series of research on vibration-based secure communication we have developed. SecureVibe is a vibration-based secure wireless connection establishment and key exchange scheme for IMDs. It is designed to securely activate the wireless channel of IMDs and share cryptographic key for channel encryption using off-the-shelf smartphone. SyncVibe is a more advanced scheme to address synchronization problem in prolonged vibration-based communication. It can be utilized for device pairing that often requires the transmission of hundreds of bits with minimal or no error.
Research Outcomes
Awards
- Micro- and Nano-Sensors for IoT Security
Younghyun Kim
3rd Place Poster Award @ US-Korea Forum on Nanotechnology, 2018 - CamPUF: Physically Unclonable Function based on CMOS Image Sensor Fixed Pattern Noise
Yongwoo Lee, Kyuin Lee, Younghyun Kim
Best Demonstration Award, SIGDA University Demonstration @ DAC (Design Automation Conference), 2018 - TeleProbe: Zero-power Contactless Probing for Implantable Medical Devices
Woo Suk Lee, Younghyun Kim, Vijay Raghunathan
Low-Power Design Contest Award @ ISLPED (International Symposium on Low Power Electronics and Design), 2017 - TeleProbe: Zero-power Contactless Probing for Implantable Medical Devices
Woo Suk Lee, Younghyun Kim, Vijay Raghunathan
Best Paper Finalist @ ISLPED (International Symposium on Low Power Electronics and Design), 2016
Publications
- SyncVibe: Fast and Secure Device Pairing through Physical Vibration on Commodity Smartphones
Kyuin Lee, Vijay Raghunathan, Anand Raghunathan, Younghyun Kim
ICCD (International Conference on Computer Design), Orlando, FL, 2018 - CamPUF: Physically Unclonable Function based on CMOS Image Sensor Fixed Pattern Noise
Younghyun Kim, Yongwoo Lee
DAC (Design Automation Conference), San Francisco, CA, 2018 - TeleProbe: Zero-power Contactless Probing for Implantable Medical Devices
Woo Suk Lee, Younghyun Kim, Vijay Raghunathan
ISLPED (International Symposium on Low Power Electronics and Design), San Francisco, CA, 2016 - Vibration-based Secure Side Channel for Medical Devices
Younghyun Kim, Woo Suk Lee, Vijay Raghunathan, Niraj K. Jha, Anand Raghunathan
DAC (Design Automation Conference), San Francisco, CA, 2015 - Reliability and Security of Implantable and Wearable Medical Devices
Younghyun Kim, Woo Suk Lee, Anand Raghunathan, Vijay Raghunathan, Niraj K. Jha
Implantable Biomedical Microsystems: Design Principles and Applications, William Andrew, 2015
Invited Talks
- Challenges & Solutions in IoT End-Point Security: A Case for Implantable Medical IoT
IEEE Madison Section Meeting, January 2018 - Enabling Secure and Low-Power Communication in Implantable Medical Devices
Korean Computer Scientists and Engineers Association in America (KOCSEA) Technical Symposium, November 2017 - Technologies for Secure and Reliable Implantable Medical Devices
Dr. Hajar Afsar Lajevardi International Memorial Conference/International Congress of Pediatrics, October 2017 - Security on IoT Platform: A Case for Implantable Medical IoT
Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute, August 2017 - Challenges & Solutions in IoT End-Point Security: A Case for Implantable Medical IoT
IoT Systems Research Center, University of Wisconsin–Madison, May 2017 - Energy-Efficient and Secure Connectivity for Implantable and Wearable Medical Devices
Seoul National University, September 2016 - Secure and Energy-Efficient Design for the Internet-of-Things
Pennsylvania State University, February 2016 - Secure and Energy-Efficient Design for the Internet-of-Things
University of Wisconsin–Madison, February 2016 - Secure and Energy-Efficient Design for the Internet-of-Things
University of Utah, February 2016 - Secure and Energy-Efficient Design for the Internet-of-Things
University of Minnesota Twin Cities, February 2016 - Energy Efficiency and Security in Wireless Internet-of-Things (IoT) Applications
Microsoft Research, November 2015 - Energy Efficiency and Security in Wireless Internet-of-Things (IoT) Applications
POSTECH (Pohang University of Science and Technology), November 2015 - Technologies for Secure Medical Devices
Hong Kong Science & Technology Parks Corporation, March 2015
Other Presentations
- Secure Wireless Implantable and Wearable Medical Device
Younghyun Kim, Woo Suk Lee, Vijay Raghunathan, Niraj K. Jha, Anand Raghunathan
Workshop Presentation @ EMBC (International Conference of the Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society), Orlando, FL, 2016 - Micro- and Nano-Sensors for IoT Security
Younghyun Kim
Poster @ US-Korea Forum on Nanotechnology, 2018 - Challenges & Solutions in IoT End-Point Security: A Case for Implantable Medical IoT
Younghyun Kim
Poster @ US-Korea Forum on Nanotechnology, 2017