HOCOS - Current Research Projects

Algebraic Fault Attacks

Algebraic Fault Attacks

(funded by DFG; project start in Oktober 2015)  Project page

Cryptographic circuits are employed in mobile and embedded systems to protect sensitive information from unauthorized access and manipulation. Fault attacks circumvent the protection by injecting faults into the hardware implementation of the cryptographic function, thus manipulating the calculation in a controlled manner and allowing the attacker to derive protected data such as secret keys. A large number of fault attacks and counter-measures against such attacks were suggested in the last years. However, isolated techniques for each individual attack are no longer sufficient; a generic protective strategy is lacking.

The Algebraic Fault Attacks project focuses on the class of algebraic fault attacks, where the information used for cryptanalysis is represented by systems of polynomials. In order to understand the scope of such attacks and develop suitable counter-measures, techniques to conduct algebraic fault attacks will be developed.