Patent ID: 8516269

Claim:
An apparatus, comprising: a physical structure including an external physically unclonable function (“PUF”) circuit disposed in or on the physical structure, the external PUF circuit coupled to output an external PUF value associated with the physical structure; and a hardware device communicatively coupled to the physical structure, the hardware device including a cryptographic fingerprint unit for authenticating a binding of the hardware device and the physical structure, the cryptographic fingerprint unit including: an internal PUF circuit disposed in or on the hardware device, the internal PUF circuit coupled to output an internal PUF value associated with the hardware device; binding logic coupled to receive the internal PUF value and the external PUF value associated with the physical structure, wherein the binding logic is configured to generate a binding PUF value using the internal PUF value and the external PUF value; and a cryptographic unit coupled to receive the binding PUF value, wherein the cryptographic unit is configured to use the binding PUF value to allow a challenger to authenticate the binding of the hardware device and the physical structure.