Finish HSM basics post

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jaseg 2021-11-23 18:40:11 +01:00
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@ -113,21 +113,26 @@ The core component of an HSM blueprint would be a suite of tamper detection mech
to improve on the current state of the art of membrane tamper switches plus temperature sensors plus PCB and printed
security meshes plus potting.
Improvements on existing techniques
-----------------------------------
Light sensors
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
**Advanced analog sensing**
**Self-test functionality**
Security meshes
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
**Analog sensing**
DIY or small lab mesh production
--------------------------------
**Analog sensing** meshes are a proven technology where instead of just monitoring for continuity and shorts, analog
parameters of the mesh traces such as inductance and mutual capacitance are monitored. In 2019, `Immler et al. published
a paper <https://tches.iacr.org/index.php/TCHES/article/view/7334>`__ where took this principle and turned it all the
way up. They directly derived a cryptographic secret from the analog properties of their HSM's security mesh in an
attempt to built a `Physically Unclonable Function, or PUF
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physical_unclonable_function>`__. The idea with PUFs is that they reproduce some entropy
that comes from random tolerances of their production process. The same PUF will always yield (approximately) the same
key, but since you cannot control these random production variations, in practice the resulting PUF cannot be cloned.
Note however, that its secrets can of course be copied if you find a way to read them out.
As Immler et al. demonstrated in their paper, you don't need any secret sauce to create an analog mesh sensing circuit.
All you need are a bunch of (admittedly, expensive) off-the-shelf analog ICs. The interesting bit here is that by
applying more advanced analog sensing, weaknesses of an otherwise coarse mesh desing could maybe be alleviated. That is,
instead of monitoring a very fine mesh for continuity, you could instead closely monitor inductance and capacitance of a
more coarse mesh. This trade-off between sensing circuit complexity (resp. cost) and mesh production capabilities may
allow someone with a poorly equipped lab to still make a decent HSM. The question is, how do you produce a "decent" mesh
given only basic tools? Here are some ideas.
**3D metal patterning techniques** refers to any technique for producing thin, patterned metal structures on a
three-dimensional plastic substrate. The basic process would consist of 3D-printing the polymer substrate, depositing a
thin metal layer on top and then patterning this metal layer. A good starting point here would be the recent work of