The use of ellipse-based estimator as a sub-key distinguisher for Side-Channel Analysis

Side-Channel Analysis has become a relevant tool to analyze a cryptographic device. Here, an adversary looks for information leakage from emanation sources such as power consumption, thus obtaining sensitive information with a lower effort than the mathematical approach. In this manuscript, a distin...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Computers & electrical engineering 2021-09, Vol.94, p.107311, Article 107311
Main Authors: Martínez-Herrera, Alberto F., Mex-Perera, Carlos, Mancillas-López, Cuauhtemoc, Del-Valle-Soto, Carolina, Bossuet, Lilian
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Computer Science
Covariance matrix
Cryptography
Cryptography and Security
Ellipse-based estimator
Mathematical analysis
Power consumption
Power traces
Side-Channel Analysis
Stability analysis
Sub-keys
Success rate
Citations: Items that this one cites
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Side-Channel Analysis has become a relevant tool to analyze a cryptographic device. Here, an adversary looks for information leakage from emanation sources such as power consumption, thus obtaining sensitive information with a lower effort than the mathematical approach. In this manuscript, a distinguisher based on the Mahalanobis distance is applied. Instead of computing an inverse covariance matrix because of lack-sampling problems with tested datasets, a shrinkage calculation is implemented, thus obtaining efficient Mahalanobis distance implementations. The current approach is evaluated using different standardized tests such as stability and success probability, which are computed using unmasked public traces obtained from the Advanced Encryption Standard’s typical implementations with a 128-bit key. We show that this technique’s efficiency is better than Pearson correlation using few traces in terms of probability detection. [Display omitted] •The Mahalanobis distance is represented with equivalent identities for computation efficiency.•These efficient representations helps to mount a reliable Side Channel distinguisher.•It is feasible to deal with low-sampled traces with the use of shrinkage factors.•The shrinkage factors do not change the computation reliability of this distinguisher.•These efficient representations do not lose precision in the gathering of the private key.•Mostly, these representations have a better detection rate than the correlation-based approach.
ISSN:0045-7906
1879-0755
DOI:10.1016/j.compeleceng.2021.107311