International Association for Cryptologic Research

International Association
for Cryptologic Research

CryptoDB

Four$\mathbb {Q}$ on Embedded Devices with Strong Countermeasures Against Side-Channel Attacks

Authors:
Zhe Liu
Patrick Longa
Geovandro C. C. F. Pereira
Oscar Reparaz
Hwajeong Seo
Download:
DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-66787-4_32
Search ePrint
Search Google
Conference: CHES 2017
Abstract: This work deals with the energy-efficient, high-speed and high-security implementation of elliptic curve scalar multiplication and elliptic curve Diffie-Hellman (ECDH) key exchange on embedded devices using Four$$\mathbb {Q}$$ and incorporating strong countermeasures to thwart a wide variety of side-channel attacks. First, we set new speed records for constant-time curve-based scalar multiplication and DH key exchange at the 128-bit security level with implementations targeting 8, 16 and 32-bit microcontrollers. For example, our software computes a static ECDH shared secret in $$\sim $$6.9 million cycles (or 0.86 s @8 MHz) on a low-power 8-bit AVR microcontroller which, compared to the fastest Curve25519 and genus-2 Kummer implementations on the same platform, offers 2$$\times $$ and 1.4$$\times $$ speedups, respectively. Similarly, it computes the same operation in $$\sim $$496 thousand cycles on a 32-bit ARM Cortex-M4 microcontroller, achieving a factor-2.9 speedup when compared to the fastest Curve25519 implementation targeting the same platform. Second, we engineer a set of side-channel countermeasures taking advantage of Four$$\mathbb {Q}$$’s rich arithmetic and propose a secure implementation that offers protection against a wide range of sophisticated side-channel attacks. Finally, we perform a differential power analysis evaluation of our software running on an ARM Cortex-M4, and report that no leakage was detected with up to 10 million traces. These results demonstrate the potential of deploying Four$$\mathbb {Q}$$ on low-power applications such as protocols for IoT.
BibTeX
@inproceedings{ches-2017-28941,
  title={Four$$\mathbb {Q}$$ on Embedded Devices with Strong Countermeasures Against Side-Channel Attacks},
  booktitle={Cryptographic Hardware and Embedded Systems – CHES 2017},
  series={Lecture Notes in Computer Science},
  publisher={Springer},
  volume={10529},
  pages={665-686},
  doi={10.1007/978-3-319-66787-4_32},
  author={Zhe Liu and Patrick Longa and Geovandro C. C. F. Pereira and Oscar Reparaz and Hwajeong Seo},
  year=2017
}