Anonymous Messaging for IoT and Cloud Security Using PUF-Based Protocols: A Lightweight Alternative to SSL

Modern IoT and cloud environments are increasingly vulnerable to sophisticated cyber-attacks, and traditional security solutions are often inadequate, inefficient, or prone to vulnerabilities. In response to these challenges, we introduce a new solution utilizing Physically Unclonable Functions (PUFs) that offers a lightweight and highly secure alternative. Unlike existing PUF-based protocols that depend on Random Number Generators (RNGs) on IoT devices and are, as such, susceptible to tampering, the new approach avoids the use of RNGs on IoT devices. By limiting the use of RNGs to cloud servers, we significantly reduce the risk of RNG manipulation. The new method also provides anonymity in communications, a critical feature in today’s privacy-conscious environment. We implement the method on an Arduino microcontroller communicating with an AWS backend to demonstrate that it is a fast and effective alternative to SSL messaging.