Blockchain-PUF Fusion for Privacy-Preserving Authentication Against AI-Enabled Attacks in Consumer IoT Systems

The Internet of Things (IoT) has transformed consumer devices by connecting smart home appliances, wearable health monitors, and personal devices that gather and share data. Cloud-assisted consumer IoT enhances these networks with improved data processing and storage capabilities for real-time analytics and personalized services. However, this open communication exposes consumer devices to risks including data leakage, eavesdropping, and tracking by malicious actors who increasingly employ AI-enabled attack techniques such as intelligent phishing and automated vulnerability exploitation. To address these challenges, we propose a lightweight authentication protocol for resource-constrained consumer IoT devices using bitwise operations and hash functions. We incorporate Physical Unclonable Functions (PUFs) and blockchain-based smart contracts to enhance security and efficiency while defending against AI-powered hardware attacks. PUFs provide unique device fingerprints resistant to AI-based cloning attacks, while smart contracts secure transactions and detect AI-generated fraudulent attempts. Security evaluation through formal verification demonstrates that our scheme offers stronger protection for consumer devices against both traditional and AI-enabled threats while maintaining lower computational and communication costs compared to existing solutions.