Ensuring tight computational security against higher-order DPA attacks

Dakshita Khurana, Aditya Gaurav

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

Abstract

While DES has been proven to be breakable within a day given sufficient computational power, AES is still in use because it is extremely resistant to cryptanalytic attacks. Power Analytic Attacks use power consumption traces of the hardware or software implementation of these algorithms to reduce search space exponentially in the size of the key, thereby making computational complexity several orders of magnitude lower. This paper analyzes the increase in the computational advantage of an adversary who uses DPA and higher order power analysis attacks as opposed to algorithmic cryptanalysis. We highlight why there can be no perfect masking against DPA, and then define a standard for the security of masking countermeasures to such attacks. The main contribution is a security metric for systems and a cut-off for the number of encryptions allowable for a given order of masking to make the system immune to higher order DPA attacks.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publication2011 9th Annual International Conference on Privacy, Security and Trust, PST 2011
Pages96-101
Number of pages6
DOIs
StatePublished - Aug 31 2011
Externally publishedYes
Event2011 9th Annual International Conference on Privacy, Security and Trust, PST 2011 - Montreal, QC, Canada
Duration: Jul 19 2011Jul 21 2011

Publication series

Name2011 9th Annual International Conference on Privacy, Security and Trust, PST 2011

Conference

Conference2011 9th Annual International Conference on Privacy, Security and Trust, PST 2011
Country/TerritoryCanada
CityMontreal, QC
Period7/19/117/21/11

Keywords

  • complexity of power analysis attacks
  • computational security
  • higher-order Differential Power Analysis (HO-DPA)
  • higher-order masking
  • security metric

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Computer Science Applications
  • Software

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