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Secure-IC, Side-Channel Attacks, Protection and Detection

2020-08-14

Cryptography is the art of hiding or securing data in the presence of an adversary. The cryptography can reach 3 different main goals:
 
Confidentiality: Sensitive data can be accessed only by users with good keys
Integrity: Sensitive data cannot be altered by non-authorized parties
Authentication: Confirm that the sensitive data came from the stated sender

To ensure these different goals, different cryptographic functions exist:
The symmetric cryptography (AES, SM4, etc.) for confidentiality
The asymmetric cryptography (RSA, ECC, etc.) for confidentiality and authenticity
The hash function (SHA2, SHA3, SM3, etc.) for integrity
The MAC function (HMAC
 
The cryptographic functions are mathematically secure and robust but can be altered by attacks and especially physical attacks. Physical attacks are intentional actions which aim to alter, disable, steal or gain unauthorized access to physical assets of a system. Physical attacks can be separated into two parts:
 
Passive analyses, where the attacker does not interact directly with the target but exploit a physical property related to the activity of the sensitive data
 
Active analyses where the attacker interacts directly with the target and disrupts its normal behaviour.

Side Channel Attacks (SCA) are part of the passive analyses. Here, the attacker will use different kinds of leakages (computation time, power consumption, electromagnetic emanation, etc.) to recover a sensitive asset such as cryptographic keys. By default, all the cryptographic functions using a secret key (symmetric, asymmetric, MAC) are sensitive to SCA.
 
Secure-IC is the security partner to help you to generate design and system which are protected against Side-Channel Attack. Indeed, all Secure-IC portfolio will support you to ensure this protection:
 
Protect: Secure-IC has designed countermeasures against Side-Channel Attacks which are already certified in Mass Production product. These countermeasures are included in the Securyzr (click here) and all the cryptographic engines delivered by Secure-IC (click here) 
 
Evaluate: With the Laboryzr offer, Secure-IC offers you the capability to validate the resiliency of your design or system against Side-Channel Attack. The Analyzr tool (click here) will check the resilience of your final product or testchip, the Virtualyzr tool (click here) will validate the resilience at HW design level such as on your RTL code.
 
Service & Certify: Secure-IC can offer you Evaluation as a service support (click here) With this offer, Secure-IC experts will validate the resilience of your system against Side-Channel Attack and support you to solve the detected vulnerabilities.

For additional content related to Side-Channel Attacks, their protection and their detection please contact us.