Dr.-Ing. Dr. rer. nat. Ulrich Rührmair

Topicbild

Chair for Cryptography
Horst Görtz Institute for IT-Security
Ruhr University Bochum
Universitätsstr. 150
D-44801 Bochum

Container Süd-R53
Tel.: +49 (0)234 32 28214
Fax.: +49 (0)234 32 14719
E-Mail: ulrich.ruehrmair(at)rub.de

Visiting address: Office 4.22, Wasserstraße 221, 44801 Bochum



Research Interests

My research interests are physical unclonable functions (PUFs), physical cryptography, disorder-based security, hardware security, and complexity theory at large.



Professional Activities

Invited Talks and Keynote Addresses (Selection)

  • On the Formal Foundations of Physical Unclonable Functions. Schloss Dagstuhl, Germany, June 19, 2008. 
  • Physical Cryptography, Or: How to Realize Cryptography and Security by Random, Disordered, and Unclonable Physical Structures. 37th International Conference on Current Trends in Theory and Practice of Computer Science (SOFSEM 2011), Slovakia, January 23, 2011.
  • Cryptographic Protocols based on Physical Unclonable Functions and Related Structures.  RISC Seminar, CWI Amsterdam, Netherlands, November 19, 2012.
  • Secure Protocols based on Strong PUFs and Related Structures TU Berlin, Germany, June 20, 2013. 
  • On the Use of Disordered, Unclonable Physical Structures in Cryptography and Security Faculty Colloquium. University of Passau, Germany, June 17, 2014.
  • Virtual Proofs of Reality and Their Physical Implementation. ETH Zürich, Switzerland, April 5, 2016.
  • Virtual Proofs of Reality and Their Physical Implementation. Schloss Dagstuhl, Germany, May 17, 2016.
  • Keynote Address:  Physical Disorder for Hardware Security.  IEEE IVSW, Spain, July 5, 2016.
  • PUFs and Beyond. Invited Seminar Talk, Harvard University, USA, November 29, 2016.
  • Exploiting Physical Disorder for IoT-Security. Yale Computer and Engineering Seminars Series, Yale University, USA, December 2, 2016.

Reviewer (Selection)

  • NATURE COMMUNICATIONS
  • NATURE NANOTECHNOLOGY
  • CRYPTO
  • EUROCRYPT
  • DATE
  • AFRICACRYPT
  • IEEE Transactions on Information Forensics and Security
  • IEEE Transactions on Computers
  • IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems I
  • IEEE Transactions on Very Large Scale Integration Systems
  • IEEE Journal on Emerging and Selected Topics in Circuits and Systems
  • ACM Transactions on Embedded Computing Systems
  • IEEE Transactions on Computer-Aided Design of Integrated Circuits and Systems
  • Journal of Applied Physics

Program Committee Memberships

  • HOST 2011
  • HOST 2012
  • HOST 2015
  • CHES 2015
  • HOST 2016
  • AsianHOST 2016
  • IEEE S&P („Oakland“) 2016
  • HOST 2017
  • AsianHOST 2017
  • WISA 2017
  • HASP 2017
  • ASHES 2017 (PC Chair)
  • IEEE S&P („Oakland“) 2017
  • IEEE S&P („Oakland“) 2018

Others

  • Special Session Organizer at DATE 2014, “How secure are PUFs really?  On the reach and limits of recent PUF attacks”.   Contributors/speakers:  Wayne Burleson, Marten van Dijk, Daniel E. Holcomb, Farinaz Koushanfar, Ulrich Rührmair, Jean-Pierre Seifert.
  • Session Chair, “Physically Unclonable Functions and Hardware Trojans”, CHES 2015.
  • Guest Editor, “Emerging Attacks and Solutions for Secure Hardware in the Internet of Things”, IEEE Transactions on Dependable and Secure Computing (TDSC).
  • Founder and Co-Organizer, Workshop on Attacks and Solutions in Hardware Security (ASHES 2017), Satellite Workshop at CCS 2017.


Publications

Journals

  • U. Rührmair, C. Jaeger, M. Bator, M. Stutzmann, P. Lugli, G. Csaba: Applications of High-Capacity Crossbar Memories in Cryptography. IEEE Transactions on Nanotechnology, 2011. pdf
  • C. Jaeger, M. Algasinger, U. Rührmair, G. Csaba, M. Stutzmann: Random p-n-junctions for physical cryptography. Applied Physics Letters 96, 172103 (2010). pdf
  • H. Langhuth, S. Frederic, M. Kaniber, J. Finley, U. Rührmair: Strong Photoluminescence Enhancement from Colloidal Quantum Dot Near Silver Nano-Island Films. Journal ofFluorescence, 2010. pdf
  • Q. Chen, G. Csaba, P. Lugli, U. Schlichtmann, M. Stutzmann, U. Rührmair: Circuit-based Approaches to SIMPL Systems. Journal of Circuits, Systems and Computers, 2011. pdf
  • P. Lugli, A. Mahmoud, M. Algasinger, M. Stutzmann, G. Csaba, U. Rührmair: Physical Unclonable Functions based on Crossbar Arrays for Cryptographic Applications. International Journal of Circuit Theory and Applications, 2013. pdf
  • U. Rührmair, M. van Dijk: On the Practical Use of Physical Unclonable Functions in Oblivious Transfer and Bit Commitment Protocols. Journal of Cryptographic Engineering, 2013. pdf
  • U. Rührmair, J. Sölter, F. Sehnke, X. Xu, A. Mahmoud, V. Stoyanova, G. Dror, J. Schmidhuber, W. Burleson, S. Devadas: PUF Modeling Attacks on Simulated and Silicon Data. IEEE Transactions on Information Forensics and Security, 2013. pdf

Conferences

  • Q. Chen, G. Csaba, X. Ju, S.B. Natarajan, P. Lugli, M. Stutzmann, U. Schlichtmann, U. Rührmair: Analog Circuits for Physical Cryptography. 12thInternational Symposium on Integrated Circuits (ISIC2009), Singapore, December 14 – 16, 2009. (This paper received the Best Paper Award.) pdf
  • M. Steinebach, S. Zmudsinski, S. Katzenbeisser, U. Rührmair: Audio watermarking forensics: detecting malicious re-embedding. Proceedings of IS&T SPIE Electronic Imaging 2010 Conference - Media Forensics and Security XII, San Jose, CA, USA, January 17 – 21, 2010. pdf
  • U. Rührmair, C. Jaeger, C. Hilgers, M. Algasinger, G. Csaba, M. Stutzmann: Security Applications of Diodes with Unique Current-Voltage Characteristics. 14th International Conference on Financial Cryptography and Data Security, Tenerife (Spain), January 25-28, 2010. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Volume 6052. Springer, 2010. pdf
  • G. Csaba, X. Ju, Z. Ma, Q. Chen, W. Porod, J. Schmidhuber, U. Schlichtmann, P.  Lugli, U. Rührmair: Application of Mismatched Cellular Nonlinear Networks for Physical Cryptography. 12thIEEE CNNA – International Workshop on Cellular Nanoscale Networks and their Applications, Berkeley, CA, USA, February 3 – 5, 2010. pdf
  • U. Rührmair, Q. Chen, M. Stutzmann, P. Lugli, U. Schlichtmann, G. Csaba: Towards Electrical, Integrated Implementations of SIMPL Systems. Workshop in Information Security Theory and Practice (WISTP 2010), Passau (Germany), 2010. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Volume 6033, pp. 277 – 292. Springer, 2010. pdf
  • U. Rührmair, S. Katzenbeisser, M. Steinebach, S. Zmudzinski: Watermark-Based Authentication and Key Exchange in Teleconferencing Systems. Communications and Multimedia Security, Linz (Austria), May 31 – June 2, 2010. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Volume 6109, pp. 75 – 80. Springer, 2010. pdf
  • U. Rührmair: Oblivious Transfer based on Physical Unclonable Functions (Extended Abstract). Third International Conference on Trust and Trustworthy Computing, Berlin (Germany), June 21-23, 2010. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Volume 6101, pp. 430 – 440. Springer, 2010. pdf
  • F. Sehnke, C. Osendorfer, J. Sölter, J. Schmidhuber, U. Rührmair: Policy Gradients for Cryptanalysis. 20th International Conference on Artificial Neural Networks (ICANN 2010), Thessaloniki, Greece, September 15-18, 2010. Proceedings, Part III. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Volume 6354. Springer, 2010. pdf
  • U. Rührmair, F. Sehnke, J. Sölter, G. Dror, S. Devadas, J. Schmidhuber: Modeling Attacks on Physical Unclonable Functions. 17th ACM Conference on Computer and Communications Security, Chicago (Illinois), October 4-8, 2010.  pdf
  • U. Rührmair: SIMPL Systems, Or: Can We Design Cryptographic Hardware without Secret Key Information? 37th Conference on Current Trends in Theory and Practice of Computer Science (SOFSEM 2011), Nový Smokovec, Slovakia, January 22-28, 2011. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Volume 6543, Springer, 2011. pdf
  • U. Rührmair, C. Jaeger, M. Algasinger: An Attack on PUF-based Session Key Exchange, and a Hardware-based Countermeasure: Erasable PUFs. 15th International Conference on Financial Cryptography and Data Security, St. Lucia, February 28 – March 4, 2011. pdf
  • Q. Chen, G. Csaba, P. Lugli, U. Schlichtmann, U. Rührmair: The Bistable Ring PUF: A New Architecture for Strong Physical Unclonable Functions. HOST 2011. pdf
  • Q. Chen, G. Csaba, P. Lugli, U. Schlichtmann, U. Rührmair: Characterization of the Bistable Ring PUF. DATE 2012. pdf
  • U. Rührmair, M. van Dijk: Practical Security Analysis of PUF-based Two-Player Protocols. CHES 2012. pdf
  • U. Rührmair, M. van Dijk: PUFs in Security Protocols: Attack Models and Security Evaluations. IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy (Oakland’13), 2013. pdf
  • M. van Dijk, U. Rührmair: Protocol Attacks on Advanced PUF Protocols and Countermeasures. DATE 2014. pdf
  • U. Rührmair, D. E. Holcomb: PUFs at a Glance. DATE 2014. pdf
  • U. Rührmair, U. Schlichtmann, W. Burleson: Special Session: How Secure are PUFs Really? On the Reach and Limits of Recent PUF Attacks. DATE 2014. pdf
  • U. Rührmair, J. Sölter: PUF Modeling Attacks: An Introduction and Overview. DATE 2014. pdf
  • M. van Dijk, U. Rührmair: PUF Interfaces and Their Security. ISVLSI 2014. pdf
  • U. Rührmair, X. Xu, J. Sölter, A. Mahmoud, F. Koushanfar, W. Burleson: Efficient Power and Timing Side Channels for Physical Unclonable Functions. CHES 2014. pdf
  • U. Rührmair, J.L. Martinez-Hurtado, X. Xu, C. Kraeh, C. Hilgers, D. Kononchuk, J. Finley, W. Burleson: Virtual Proofs of Reality and Their Physical Implementation. IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy (“Oakland”), 2015. pdf
  • Roarke Horstmeyer, Sid Assawaworrarit, Ulrich Rührmair, Changhuei Yang: Physically secure and fully reconfigurable data storage using optical scattering. HOST 2015 pdf
  • Xiaolin Xu, Ulrich Rührmair, Daniel E. Holcomb, Wayne P. Burleson: Security Evaluation and Enhancement of Bistable Ring PUFs. RFIDSec 2015. pdf
  • Qingqing Chen, Ulrich Rührmair, Spoorthy Narayana, Uzair Sharif, Ulf Schlichtmann: MWA Skew SRAM Based SIMPL Systems for Public-Key Physical Cryptography. TRUST 2015. pdf
  • M. Sauer, P. Raiola, L. Feiten, B. Becker, U. Rührmair, I. Polian: Sensitized Path PUF: A Lightweight Embedded Physical Unclonable Function. DATE 2017. pdf

Invited Book Chapters

  • U. Rührmair, H. Busch, S. Katzenbeisser: Strong PUFs: Models, Constructions and Security Proofs. InA.-R. Sadeghi, P. Tuyls (Editors): “Towards Hardware Intrinsic Security: Foundation and Practice”. Springer, 2010. pdf
  • U. Rührmair, S. Devadas, F. Koushanfar: Security based on Physical Unclonability and Disorder. In M. Tehranipoor and C. Wang (Editors): “Introduction to Hardware Security and Trust”. Springer, 2011. pdf
  • U. Rührmair: SIMPL Systems as a Keyless Cryptographic and Security Primitive. In: D. Naccache (Editor), Cryptography and Security: From Theory to Applications - Essays Dedicated to Jean-Jacques Quisquater on the Occasion of His 65th Birthday. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Vol. 6805, Springer, 2012. pdf
  • U. Rührmair: Disorder-based Security Hardware: An Overview. In: Secure System Design and Trustable Computing, Chip Hong Chang and Miodrag Potkonjak (Ed.), Springer 2015. pdf

Eprints

  • U. Rührmair: SIMPL Systems: On a Public Key Variant of Physical Unclonable Functions. Cryptology ePrint Archive, Report 2009/255, 2009. pdf
  • U. Rührmair, J. Sölter, F. Sehnke: On the Foundations of Physical Unclonable Functions. Cryptology ePrint Archive, Report 2009/277, 2009. pdf
  • U. Rührmair, Q. Chen, P. Lugli, M. Stutzmann, G. Csaba: Towards Electrical, Integrated Implementations of SIMPL Systems. Cryptology ePrint Archive, Report 2009/278, 2009.   pdf
  • G. Csaba, X. Ju, Q. Chen, W. Porod, J. Schmidhuber, U. Schlichtmann, P. Lugli, U. Rührmair: On-Chip Electric Waves: An Analog Circuit Approach to Physical Unclonable Functions. Cryptology ePrint Archive, Report 2009/246, 2009.   pdf
  • U. Rührmair, F. Sehnke, J. Sölter, G. Dror, S. Devadas, J. Schmidhuber: Modeling Attacks on Physical Unclonable Functions. Cryptology ePrint Archive, Report 2010/251, 2010. pdf
  • U. Rührmair: Physical Turing Machines and the Formalization of Physical Cryptography. Cryptology ePrint Archive, Report 2011/188, 2011. pdf
  • U. Rührmair: SIMPL Systems as a Keyless Cryptographic and Security Primitive. Cryptology ePrint Archive, Report 2011/189, 2011. pdf
  • M. van Dijk, U. Rührmair: Physical Unclonable Functions in Cryptographic Protocols: Security Proofs and Impossibility Results. Cryptology ePrint Archive, Report 2012/228, 2012. pdf
  • U. Rührmair, J. Sölter, F. Sehnke, X. Xu, A. Mahmoud, V. Stoyanova, G. Dror, J. Schmidhuber, W. Burleson, S. Devadas: PUF Modeling Attacks on Simulated and Silicon Data. Cryptology ePrint Archive, Report 2013/112, 2013. pdf
  • U. Rührmair, C. Hilgers, S. Urban, A. Weiershäuser, E. Dinter, B. Forster, C. Jirauschek: Optical PUFs Reloaded. Cryptology ePrint Archive, Report 2013/215, 2013. pdf
  • A. Mahmoud, U. Rührmair, M. Majzoobi, F. Koushanfar: Combined Modeling and Side Channel Attacks on Strong PUFs. Cryptology ePrint Archive, Report 2013/632, 2013. pdf
  • U. Rührmair, X. Xu, J. Sölter, A. Mahmoud, F. Koushanfar, W. Burleson: Power and Timing Side Channels for PUFs and their Efficient Exploitation. Cryptology ePrint Archive, Report 2013/851, 2013. pdf
  • U. Rührmair: Virtual Proofs of Reality. Cryptology ePrint Archive, Report 2014/215, 2014. pdf
  • Xiaolin Xu, Ulrich Rührmair, Daniel E. Holcomb, Wayne P. Burleson: Security Evaluation and Enhancement of Bistable Ring PUFs. Cryptology ePrint Archive, Report 2015/443, 2015. pdf
  • Chenglu Jin, Xiaolin Xu, Wayne P. Burleson, Ulrich Rührmair, Marten van Dijk: PLayPUF: Programmable Logically Erasable PUFs for Forward and Backward Secure Key Management. Cryptology ePrint Archive, Report 2015/1052, 2015. pdf
  • U. Rührmair: On the Security of PUF Protocols under Bad PUFs and PUFs-inside-PUFs Attacks. Cryptology ePrint Archive, Report 2016/322, 2016. pdf