We offer a wide range of BSc and MSc theses in the areas of Implementation Security dealing with either implementation of cryptographic primitives, i.e., considering their performance metrics (area, latency, power, and energy consumption) or their physical security. More precisely, in some theses, the goal is to conduct attacks (by side-channel analysis or fault-injection) on various implementations often protected by a certain countermeasure. In some other theses, the aim is to develop countermeasures (against side-channel analysis or fault-injection attacks or their combination) under certain criteria, e.g., when area is limited or a high throughput is expected, etc. Please have a look at here to see some specific topics available as BSc/MSc thesis.
Due to their complexity, cryptographic systems place high demands on small processors and embedded systems in particular. In combination with the demand for high data throughput at the lowest possible hardware costs, this results in fundamental problems for the developer, which will be examined in this lecture. The lecture deals with the most interesting aspects of how to implement current cryptographic methods on practical hardware platforms. Cryptographic systems such as the block cipher AES, the hash functions as well as asymmetric systems RSA and ECC are covered. The efficient implementation of these cryptographic systems, in particular with regard to optimization for high speed, is discussed on modern platforms and implemented in exercises using the hardware description language VHDL.
The modern cryptographic algorithms provide a reasonable level of security against the known mathematical and analytical 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, introduced a new form of attacks called physical 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 physical 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. The goal of this lecture is to give an overview of the known physical attacks and most considerably the schemes developed to counter such kind of attacks. In the first part of the lecture different kinds of physical attacks are introduced, while we focus later on countermeasures and the methods to make implementations resistant against the known physical attacks.
The chair of Implementation Security offers a seminar for Master students. As a side note, particular previous knowledge in the field of IT Security or cryptography is recommended, but is not a must.
The topics offered by the chair are assigned via Moodle. There you will also find further information about the service and the selection procedure. The registration period is usually before the start of the semester. The exact period will be announced via Moodle.
Important: The use of the Moodle course is a prerequisite for the assignment of a topic as well as for the successful participation in the seminar.
