Design of the Secure Execution PUF-based Processor (SEPP)
Florian Unterstein, Stephan Kleber, Matthias Matousek, Frank Kargl, Frank Slomka, Matthias Hiller · OPen Access Repositorium der Universität Ulm (OPARU) (Ulm University) · 2015
A persistent problem with program execution is its vulnerability to code injection attacks. Equally unsolved is the susceptibility of software to reverse engineering, which undermines code confidentiality. We propose an approach that solves both kinds of security problems by employing instruction-level code encryption combined with the use of a physical unclonable function (PUF). Our Secure Execution PUF-based Processor (SEPP) architecture is designed to minimize the attack surface, as well as the performance impact, and requires no significant changes to the software development process. Our approach supports distributed systems, as the secure execution environment needs not be physically available to the developer.