Cryptographic algorithms provide a reasonable level of security against known cryptanalysis attacks. At the end, cryptographic algorithms are realized to be used in a security-enabled application. This realization is done by implementing the desired cryptographic algorithm using some program codes in software or some logic elements in hardware. Physical access of the users to the cryptographic devices (e.g., a smartcard used for payment, a contactless card used for authentication, and smartphones) where a secret key is embedded, has introduced a new form of attacks called side-channel analysis attacks. This kind of attacks aims at extracting the secret key from the target implementation, which is used by the cryptographic algorithm. Breaking a system by means of a side-channel analysis attack does not infer to the weakness of the algorithm but of the implementation. Therefore, considering such kind of attacks when designing a cryptographic device is a must. In this lab course, various side-channel analysis attacks and different countermeasures are explored on real hardware, i.e., an embedded ARM micro-processor. Students should learn how to measure power traces, verify implementations and recognize common effects of micro-architectures on executed ciphers, as well as how to avoid them.

The course will require coding proficiency in: Assembly, C, Python. Every student will receive a ChipWhisperer Nano, to implement the assignments individually. This will require some software (Assembly, C, Python) knowledge as well as the theoretical background given in the lecture.