Introduction to differential power analysis

The power consumed by a circuit varies according to the activity of its individual transistors and other components. As a result, measurements of the power used by actual computers or microchips contain information about the operations being performed and the data being processed. Cryptographic desi...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of cryptographic engineering 2011-04, Vol.1 (1), p.5-27
Main Authors: Kocher, Paul, Jaffe, Joshua, Jun, Benjamin, Rohatgi, Pankaj
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Circuits and Systems
Communications Engineering
Computer Communication Networks
Computer Science
Cryptology
Data Structures and Information Theory
Networks
Operating Systems
Regular Paper
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The power consumed by a circuit varies according to the activity of its individual transistors and other components. As a result, measurements of the power used by actual computers or microchips contain information about the operations being performed and the data being processed. Cryptographic designs have traditionally assumed that secrets are manipulated in environments that expose no information beyond the specified inputs and outputs. This paper examines how information leaked through power consumption and other side channels can be analyzed to extract secret keys from a wide range of devices. The attacks are practical, non-invasive, and highly effective—even against complex and noisy systems where cryptographic computations account for only a small fraction of the overall power consumption. We also introduce approaches for preventing DPA attacks and for building cryptosystems that remain secure even when implemented in hardware that leaks.
ISSN:2190-8508
2190-8516
DOI:10.1007/s13389-011-0006-y