Sensing scheme for low power reram-based physical unclonable functions

A system and method of secure communication between computing devices based on physical unclonable functions such as memories having dissolvable conductive paths is provided. The method involves enrolling a client device, the client device having a PUF such as a pristine ReRAM. The PUF is enrolled in a secure environment by reading and storing the resistances of the PUF's addressable memory cells. The cells are categorized into "rugged" and "vulnerable" categories on the basis of their resistance, the vulnerable cells being those more likely to be permanently altered during the generations of PUF responses. The rugged cells are used for the generation of PUF responses for cryptographic key generation, but the vulnerable cells may be inspected to detect unauthorized 3rd party access to the PUF.