Patent attributes
The present invention relates to the field of anti-counterfeit protection of products. Specifically, the invention is directed to a composite security marking for a physical object, in particular to an anti-counterfeit product marking. In particular, without limitation, such composite security marking can be used in connection with or can form a component of a multi-component security system, in particular of an anti-counterfeit protection system, which is also disclosed herein as part of an overall solution for anti-counterfeit protection. The composite security marking comprises a physical unclonable function, PUF, and a representation of a digital signature or of a pointer indicating a location where said digital signature can be accessed. The digital signature digitally signs a hash value resulting from application of a predetermined cryptographic hash function to data representing a response generated by the PUF in reaction to a challenge of a predetermined challenge-response authentication scheme.
