US Patent 11010465 Password management with addressable physical unclonable function generators

Systems and methods for improving security in computer-based authentication systems by using physical unclonable functions are presented. A computing device used to provide authentication includes an array of physical unclonable function devices. Rather than storing user passwords or message digests of passwords, the computing device generates a message digest based on a combination of a user ID and corresponding password. This message digest forms part of challenge (together with instructions for responding to the challenge). A challenge response generated by measuring physical parameters of set of physical unclonable function devices specified by the message digest. This allows the computing device to provide authentication without storing information which could be used by an attacker to compromise user credentials.