Design and optimization of the input modules of a DPA toolbox

A. Fuentes Rodríguez, L. Hernández Encinas, A. Martín Muñoz, and B. Alarcos Alcázar
Logic Jnl IGPL first published online: December 9, 2015

Theoretical security of cryptographic systems does not guarantee their security in practice when those systems are implemented in physical devices. The aim of this work is to present the design and optimization of the input modules of a toolbox to carry out differential power analysis attacks against the physical implementation of a given cryptosystem. Text and Key modules allow to input the plaintext or ciphertext to the targeted cryptographic algorithm and the corresponding hypothetical values about the used key, respectively. Once configured, the toolbox Power Traces module controls a digital oscilloscope which acquires the power traces during the operation of the device and automatically performs the necessary traces alignment. It can also perform statistical operations with the stored values representing the acquired traces. An analysis about different object-oriented trace representation options to implement the toolbox is performed and results are presented.

Acknowledgements

This research was partly supported by both Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (Spain) under the grant TIN2011-22668, and Comunidad de Madrid (Spain) under project reference S2013/ICE-3095-CIBERDINE-CM.