Second-Order Low-Randomness d+1d+1 Hardware Sharing of the AES

In this paper, we introduce a second-order masking of the AES using the minimal number of shares and a total of 1268 bits of randomness including the sharing of the plaintext and key. The masking of the S-box is based on the tower field decomposition of the inversion over bytes where the changing of the guards technique is used in order to re-mask the middle branch of the decomposition. The sharing of the S-box is carefully crafted such that it achieves first-order probing security without the use of randomness and such that the sharing of its output is uniform. Multi-round security is achieved by re-masking the state where we use a theoretical analysis based on the propagation of probed information to reduce the demand for fresh randomness per round. The result is a second-order masked AES which competes with the state-of-the-art in terms of latency and area, but reduces the randomness complexity over eight times over the previous known works. In addition to the corresponding theoretical analysis and proofs for the security of our masked design, it has been implemented on FPGA and evaluated via lab analysis

Very High Order Masking: Efficient Implementation and Security Evaluation

In this paper, we study the performances and security of recent masking algorithms specialized to parallel implementations in a 32-bit embedded software platform, for the standard AES Rijndael and the bitslice cipher Fantomas. By exploiting the excellent features of these algorithms for bitslice implementations, we first extend the recent speed records of Goudarzi and Rivain (presented at Eurocrypt 2017) and report realistic timings for masked implementations with 32 shares. We then observe that the security level provided by such implementations is uneasy to quantify with current evaluation tools. We therefore propose a new ``multi-model evaluation methodology which takes advantage of different (more or less abstract) security models introduced in the literature. This methodology allows us to both bound the security level of our implementations in a principled manner and to assess the risks of overstated security based on well understood parameters. Concretely, it leads us to conclude that these implementations withstand worst-case adversaries with >2^64 measurements under falsifiable assumptions

Implémentations Sécurisées de Chiffrement par Bloc contre les Attaques Physiques

Since their introduction at the end of the 1990s, side-channel attacks are considered to be a major threat to cryptographic implementations. Higher-order masking is considered to be one the most popular existing protection strategies against such attacks. It consists in separating each internal variable in the cryptographic computation into several random variables. However, the use of this type of protection entails a considerable efficiency loss, making it unusable for industrial solutions.The goal of this thesis is to reduce the gap between theoretical solutions, proven secure, and efficient implementations that can be deployed on embedded systems. More precisely, I analyzed the protection of block ciphers such as the AES encryption scheme, where the main issue is to protect the s-boxes with minimal overhead in costs.I have tried, first, to find optimal mathematical representations in order to evaluate the s-boxes while minimizing the number of multiplications (an important parameter for masking schemes, but also for homomorphic encryption). For this purpose, I have defined a generic method to decompose any s-box on any finite field with a low multiplicative complexity. These representations can then be efficiently evaluated with higher-order masking. The flexibility of the decomposition technique further allows the developer to easily adapt it to its needs.Secondly, I have proposed a formal method for measuring the security of circuits evaluating masking schemes. This technique allows to define with exact precision whether an attack on a protected circuit is feasible or not. Unlike other tools, its computation time is not exponential in the circuit size, making it possible to obtain a security proof regardless of the masking order used. Furthermore, this method can strictly reduce the use of costly tools in randomness required for reinforcing the security of masking operations.Finally, I present some implementation results with optimizations at both algorithmic and programming levels. I particularly employ a bitslice implementation strategy for evaluating the s-boxes in parallel. This strategy leads to speed record for implementations protected at high orders. The different codes are developed and optimized in ARM assembly, one of the most popular programming language in embedded systems such as smart cards and mobile phones. These implementations are also available online for public use.Depuis leur introduction à la fin des années 1990, les attaques par canaux auxiliaires sont considérées comme une menace majeure contre les implémentations cryptographiques. Parmi les stratégies de protection existantes, une des plus utilisées est le masquage d'ordre supérieur. Elle consiste à séparer chaque variable interne du calcul cryptographique en plusieurs variables aléatoires. Néanmoins, l'utilisation de cette protection entraîne des pertes d'efficacité considérables, la rendant souvent impraticable pour des produits industriels.Cette thèse a pour objectif de réduire l'écart entre les solutions théoriques, prouvées sûres, et les implémentations efficaces déployables sur des systèmes embarqués. Plus particulièrement, nous nous intéressons à la protection des algorithmes de chiffrement par bloc tel que l'AES, dont l'enjeu principal revient à protéger les boîtes-s avec un surcoût minimal.Nous essayons tout d’abord de trouver des représentations mathématiques optimales pour l'évaluation des boîtes-s en minimisant le nombre de multiplications (un paramètre déterminant pour l'efficacité du masquage, mais aussi pour le chiffrement homomorphe). Pour cela, nous définissons une méthode générique pour décomposer n'importe quelle boîte-s sur un corps fini avec une complexité multiplicative faible. Ces représentations peuvent alors être évaluées efficacement avec du masquage d'ordre supérieur. La flexibilité de la méthode de décomposition permet également de l'ajuster facilement selon les nécessités du développeur.Nous proposons ensuite une méthode formelle pour déterminer la sécurité d'un circuit évaluant des schémas de masquages. Cette technique permet notamment de déterminer de manière exacte si une attaque est possible sur un circuit protégé ou non. Par rapport aux autres outils existants, son temps de réponse n'explose pas en la taille du circuit et permet d'obtenir une preuve de sécurité quelque soit l'ordre de masquage employé. De plus, elle permet de diminuer de manière stricte l'emploi d'outils coûteux en aléas, requis pour renforcer la sécurité des opérations de masquages.Enfin, nous présentons des résultats d'implémentation en proposant des optimisations tant sur le plan algorithmique que sur celui de la programmation. Nous utilisons notamment une stratégie d’implémentation bitslice pour évaluer les boîtes-s en parallèle. Cette stratégie nous permet d'atteindre des records de rapidité pour des implémentations d'ordres élevés. Les différents codes sont développés et optimisés en assembleur ARM, un des langages les plus répandus dans les systèmes embarqués tels que les cartes à puces et les téléphones mobiles. Ces implémentations sont, en outre, disponibles en ligne pour une utilisation publique

Optimized Threshold Implementations: Securing Cryptographic Accelerators for Low-Energy and Low-Latency Applications

Threshold implementations have emerged as one of the most popular masking countermeasures for hardware implementations of cryptographic primitives. In the original version of TI, the number of input shares was dependent on both security order $d$ and algebraic degree of a function $t$, namely $td + 1$. At CRYPTO 2015, a new method was presented yielding to a $d$-th order secure implementation using $d+1$ input shares. In this work, we first provide a construction for $d+1$ TI sharing which achieves the minimal number of output shares for any $n$-input Boolean function of degree $t=n-1$. Furthermore, we present a heuristic for minimizing the number of output shares for higher order $td + 1$ TI. Finally, we demonstrate the applicability of our results on $d+1$ and $td+1$ TI versions, for first- and second-order secure, low-latency and low-energy implementations of the PRINCE block cipher

IronMask: Versatile Verification of Masking Security

This paper introduces IronMask, a new versatile verification tool for masking security. IronMask is the first to offer the verification of standard simulation-based security notions in the probing model as well as recent composition and expandability notions in the random probing model. It supports any masking gadgets with linear randomness (e.g. addition, copy and refresh gadgets) as well as quadratic gadgets (e.g. multiplication gadgets) that might include non-linear randomness (e.g. by refreshing their inputs), while providing complete verification results for both types of gadgets. We achieve this complete verifiability by introducing a new algebraic characterization for such quadratic gadgets and exhibiting a complete method to determine the sets of input shares which are necessary and sufficient to perform a perfect simulation of any set of probes. We report various benchmarks which show that IronMask is competitive with state-of-the-art verification tools in the probing model (maskVerif, scVerif, SILVER, matverif). IronMask is also several orders of magnitude faster than VRAPS --the only previous tool verifying random probing composability and expandability-- as well as SILVER --the only previous tool providing complete verification for quadratic gadgets with non-linear randomness. Thanks to this completeness and increased performance, we obtain better bounds for the tolerated leakage probability of state-of-the-art random probing secure compilers

LLTI: Low-Latency Threshold Implementations

With the enormous increase in portable cryptographic devices, physical attacks are becoming similarly popular. One of the most common physical attacks is Side-Channel Analysis (SCA), extremely dangerous due to its non-invasive nature. Threshold Implementations (TI) was proposed as the first countermeasure to provide provable security in masked hardware implementations. While most works on hardware masking are focused on optimizing the area requirements, with the newer and smaller technologies area is taking a backseat, and low-latency is gaining importance. In this work, we revisit the scheme proposed by Arribas et al. in TCHES 2018 to secure unrolled implementations. We formalize and expand this methodology, to devise a masking scheme, derived from TI, designed to secure hardware implementations optimized for latency named Low-Latency Threshold Implementations (LLTI). By applying the distributive property and leveraging a divide-and-conquer strategy, we split a non-linear operation in layers which are masked separately. The result is a more efficient scheme than the former TI for any operation of algebraic degree greater than two, achieving great optimizations both in terms of speed and area. We compare the performance of first-order LLTI with first-order TI in securing a cubic gate and a degree-7 AND gate without using any registers in between. We achieve a 137% increase in maximum frequency and a 60% reduction in area for the cubic gate, and 3131 times reduction in area in the case of a degree-7 AND gate compared to TI. To further illustrate the power of our scheme we take a low-latency PRINCE implementation from the literature and, by simply changing the secure S-box with the LLTI version, we achieve a 46% max. frequency improvement and a 38% area reduction. Moreover, we apply LLTI to a secure a low-latency AES implementation and compare it with the TI version, achieving a 6.9 times max. freq. increase and a 47.2% area reduction

Hardware Private Circuits: From Trivial Composition to Full Verification

International audienceThe design of glitch-resistant higher-order masking schemes is an important challenge in cryptographic engineering. A recent work by Moos et al. (CHES 2019) showed that most published schemes (and all efficient ones) exhibit local or composability flaws at high security orders, leaving a critical gap in the literature on hardware masking. In this paper, we first extend the simulatability framework of Belaïd et al. (EUROCRYPT 2016) and prove that a compositional strategy that is correct without glitches remains valid with glitches. We then use this extended framework to prove the first masked gadgets that enable trivial composition with glitches at arbitrary orders. We show that the resulting "Hardware Private Circuits" approach the implementation efficiency of previous (flawed) schemes. We finally investigate how trivial composition can serve as a basis for a tool that allows verifying full masked hardware implementations (e.g., of complete block ciphers) at any security order from their HDL code. As side products, we improve the randomness complexity of the best published refreshing gadgets, show that some S-box representations allow latency reductions and confirm practical claims based on implementation results

Exploiting algebraic structures in probing security

The so-called $\omega$-encoding, introduced by Goudarzi, Joux and Rivain (Asiacrypt 2018), generalizes the commonly used arithmetic encoding. By using the additionnal structure of this encoding, they proposed a masked multiplication gadget (GJR) with quasilinear (randomness and operations) complexity. A follow-up contribution by Goudarzi, Prest, Rivain and Vergnaud in this line of research appeared in TCHES 2021. The authors revisited the aforementioned multiplication gadget (GPRV), and brought the IOS security notion for refresh gadgets to allow secure composition between probing secure gadgets. In this paper, we propose a follow up on GPRV, that is, a region-probing secure arithmetic circuit masked compiler. Our contribution stems from a single Lemma, linking algebra and probing security for a wide class of circuits, further taking advantage of the algebraic structure of $\omega$-encoding, and the extension field structure of the underlying field $\mathbb F$ that was so far left unexploited. On the theoretical side, we propose a security notion for $\boldsymbol{\omega}_d$-masked circuits which we call Reducible-To-Independent-K-linear (RTIK). When the number of shares $d$ is less than or equal to the degree $k$ of $\mathbb F$, RTIK circuits achieve region-probing security. Moreover, RTIK circuits may be composed naively and remain RTIK. We also propose a weaker version of IOS, which we call KIOS, for refresh gadgets. This notion allows to compose RTIK circuits with a randomness/security tradeoff compared to the naive composition. To substantiate our new definitions, we also provide examples of competitively efficient gadgets verifying the latter weaker security notions. Explicitly, we give 1) two refresh gadgets that use $d-1$ random field elements to refresh a length $d$ encoding, both of which are KIOS but not IOS, and 2) a multiplication gadget with bilinear multiplication complexity $d^{\log 3}$ and uses $d$ fresh random elements per run. Our compiler outperforms ISW asymptotically, but for our security proofs to hold, we do require that the number of shares $d$ is less than or equal to the degree of $\mathbb F$ as an extension, so that there is sufficient structure to exploit

Randomness Optimization for Gadget Compositions in Higher-Order Masking

Physical characteristics of electronic devices, leaking secret and sensitive information to an adversary with physical access, pose a long-known threat to cryptographic hardware implementations. Among a variety of proposed countermeasures against such Side-Channel Analysis attacks, masking has emerged as a promising, but often costly, candidate. Furthermore, the manual realization of masked implementations has proven error-prone and often introduces flaws, possibly resulting in insecure circuits. In the context of automatic masking, a new line of research emerged, aiming to replace each physical gate with a secure gadget that fulfills well-defined properties, guaranteeing security when interconnected to a large circuit. Unfortunately, those gadgets introduce a significant amount of additional overhead into the design, in terms of area, latency, and randomness requirements. In this work, we present a novel approach to reduce the demands for randomness in such gadget-composed circuits by reusing randomness across gadgets while maintaining security in the probing adversary model. To this end, we embedded the corresponding optimization passes into an Electronic Design Automation toolchain, able to construct, optimize, and implement masked circuits, starting from an unprotected design. As such, our security-aware optimization offers an additional building block for existing or new Electronic Design Automation frameworks, where security is considered a first-class design constraint