PUF Based Secure Framework for Hardware and Software Security of Drones

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) augmented with sensors like cameras, GPS and LiDARs, shows tremendous potential in delivering Internet of Things (IoT) services from great heights. Current security challenges in the drone deployment for such applications are: software and hardware breaches, identification of rogue drones and link hijack avoidance. In this work, we extend the secure framework for not only software, but also for hardware breaches and identification of compromised drones using a Trusted Execution Environment (TEE) created by ARM's TrustZone technology and Physically Unclonable Function (PUF). The PUF based unique fingerprints of onboard sensors, flight controller and companion computer of the drone are implemented in a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA). The PUF based drone authentication algorithm has been implemented and demonstrated in a proof of concept system and can be incorporated in drone deployments.