Towards Tight Random Probing Security

Proving the security of masked implementations in theoretical models that are relevant to practice and match the best known attacks of the side-channel literature is a notoriously hard problem. The random probing model is a good candidate to contribute to this challenge, due to its ability to capture the continuous nature of physical leakage (contrary to the threshold probing model), while also being convenient to manipulate in proofs and to automate with verification tools. Yet, despite recent progresses in the design of masked circuits with good asymptotic security guarantees in this model, existing results still fall short when it comes to analyze the security of concretely useful circuits under realistic noise levels and with low number of shares. In this paper, we contribute to this issue by introducing a new composability notion, the Probe Distribution Table (PDT), and a new tool (called STRAPS, for the Sampled Testing of the RAndom Probing Security). Their combination allows us to significantly improve the tightness of existing analyses in the most practical (low noise, low number of shares) region of the design space. We illustrate these improvements by quantifying the random probing security of an AES S-box circuit, masked with the popular multiplication gadget of Ishai, Sahai and Wagner from Crypto 2003, with up to six shares

Effective and Efficient Masking with Low Noise using Small-Mersenne-Prime Ciphers

Embedded devices used in security applications are natural targets for physical attacks. Thus, enhancing their side-channel resistance is an important research challenge. A standard solution for this purpose is the use of Boolean masking schemes, as they are well adapted to current block ciphers with efficient bitslice representations. Boolean masking guarantees that the security of an implementation grows exponentially in the number of shares under the assumption that leakages are sufficiently noisy (and independent). Unfortunately, it has been shown that this noise assumption is hardly met on low-end devices. In this paper, we therefore investigate techniques to mask cryptographic algorithms in such a way that their resistance can survive an almost complete lack of noise. Building on seed theoretical results of Dziembowski et al., we put forward that arithmetic encodings in prime fields can reach this goal. We first exhibit the gains that such encodings lead to thanks to a simulated information theoretic analysis of their leakage (with up to six shares). We then provide figures showing that on platforms where optimized arithmetic adders and multipliers are readily available (i.e., most MCUs and FPGAs), performing masked operations in small to medium Mersenne-prime fields as opposed to binary extension fields will not lead to notable implementation overheads. We compile these observations into a new AES-like block cipher, called AES-prime, which is well-suited to illustrate the remarkable advantages of masking in prime fields. We also confirm the practical relevance of our findings by evaluating concrete software (ARM Cortex-M3) and hardware (Xilinx Spartan-6) implementations. Our experimental results show that security gains over Boolean masking (and, more generally, binary encodings) can reach orders of magnitude despite the same amount of information being leaked per share

Effective and Efficient Masking with Low Noise Using Small-Mersenne-Prime Ciphers

Embedded devices used in security applications are natural targets for physical attacks. Thus, enhancing their side-channel resistance is an important research challenge. A standard solution for this purpose is the use of Boolean masking schemes, as they are well adapted to current block ciphers with efficient bitslice representations. Boolean masking guarantees that the security of an implementation grows exponentially in the number of shares under the assumption that leakages are sufficiently noisy (and independent). Unfortunately, it has been shown that this noise assumption is hardly met on low-end devices. In this paper, we therefore investigate techniques to mask cryptographic algorithms in such a way that their resistance can survive an almost complete lack of noise. Building on seed theoretical results of Dziembowski et al., we put forward that arithmetic encodings in prime fields can reach this goal. We first exhibit the gains that such encodings lead to thanks to a simulated information theoretic analysis of their leakage (with up to six shares). We then provide figures showing that on platforms where optimized arithmetic adders and multipliers are readily available (i.e., most MCUs and FPGAs), performing masked operations in small to medium Mersenne-prime fields as opposed to binary extension fields will not lead to notable implementation overheads. We compile these observations into a new AES-like block cipher, called AES-prime, which is well-suited to illustrate the remarkable advantages of masking in prime fields. We also confirm the practical relevance of our findings by evaluating concrete software (ARM Cortex-M3) and hardware (Xilinx Spartan-6) implementations. Our experimental results show that security gains over Boolean masking (and, more generally, binary encodings) can reach orders of magnitude despite the same amount of information being leaked per share

Circuit Compilers with O(1/ log(n)) Leakage Rate

The goal of leakage-resilient cryptography is to construct cryptographic algorithms that are secure even if the devices on which they are implemented leak information to the adversary. One of the main parameters for designing leakage resilient constructions is the leakage \emph{rate}, i.e., a proportion between the amount of leaked information and the complexity of the computation carried out by the construction. We focus on the so-called circuit compilers, which is an important tool for transforming any cryptographic algorithm (represented as a circuit) into one that is secure against the leakage attack. Our model is the ``probing attack\u27\u27 where the adversary learns the values on some (chosen by him) wires of the circuit. Our results can be summarized as follows. First, we construct circuit compilers with perfect security and leakage rate $O(1/\log(n))$, where $n$ denotes the security parameter (previously known constructions achieved rate $O(1/n)$). Moreover, for the circuits that have only affine gates we obtain a construction with a constant leakage rate. In particular, our techniques can be used to obtain constant-rate leakage-resilient schemes for refreshing an encoded secret (previously known schemes could tolerate leakage rates $O(1/n)$). We also show that our main construction is secure against constant-rate leakage in the random probing leakage model, where the leaking wires are chosen randomly

Tight Bounds on the Randomness Complexity of Secure Multiparty Computation

We revisit the question of minimizing the randomness complexity of protocols for secure multiparty computation (MPC) in the setting of perfect information-theoretic security. Kushilevitz and Mansour (SIAM J. Discret. Math., 1997) studied the case of $n$-party semi-honest MPC for the XOR function with security threshold $t<n$, showing that $O(t^2\log(n/t))$ random bits are sufficient and $\Omega(t)$ random bits are necessary. Their positive result was obtained via a non-explicit protocol, whose existence was proved using the probabilistic method. We essentially close the question by proving an $\Omega(t^2)$ lower bound on the randomness complexity of XOR, matching the previous upper bound up to a logarithmic factor (or constant factor when $t=\Omega(n)$). We also obtain an explicit protocol that uses $O(t^2\cdot\log^2n)$ random bits, matching our lower bound up to a polylogarithmic factor. We extend these results from XOR to general symmetric Boolean functions and to addition over a finite Abelian group, showing how to amortize the randomness complexity over multiple additions. Finally, combining our techniques with recent randomness-efficient constructions of private circuits, we obtain an explicit protocol for evaluating a general circuit $C$ using only $O(t^2\cdot\log |C|)$ random bits, by employing additional ``helper parties\u27\u27 who do not contribute any inputs. This upper bound too matches our lower bound up to a logarithmic factor