[Resource Topic] 2020/1368: On the Worst-Case Side-Channel Security of ECC Point Randomization in Embedded Devices

Welcome to the resource topic for 2020/1368

Title:
On the Worst-Case Side-Channel Security of ECC Point Randomization in Embedded Devices

Authors: Melissa Azouaoui, François Durvaux, Romain Poussier, François-Xavier Standaert, Kostas Papagiannopoulos, Vincent Verneuil

Abstract:

Point randomization is an important countermeasure to protect Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC) implementations against side-channel attacks. In this paper, we revisit its worst-case security in front of advanced side-channel adversaries taking advantage of analytical techniques in order to exploit all the leakage samples of an implementation. Our main contributions in this respect are the following: first, we show that due to the nature of the attacks against the point randomization (which can be viewed as Simple Power Analyses), the gain of using analytical techniques over simpler divide-and-conquer attacks is limited. Second, we take advantage of this observation to evaluate the theoretical noise levels necessary for the point randomization to provide strong security guarantees and compare different elliptic curve coordinates systems. Then, we turn this simulated analysis into actual experiments and show that reasonable security levels can be achieved by implementations even on low-cost (e.g. 8-bit) embedded devices. Finally, we are able to bound the security on 32-bit devices against worst-case adversaries.

ePrint: https://eprint.iacr.org/2020/1368

See all topics related to this paper.

Feel free to post resources that are related to this paper below.

Example resources include: implementations, explanation materials, talks, slides, links to previous discussions on other websites.

For more information, see the rules for Resource Topics .