A 286F2/cell distributed bulk-current sensor and secure flush code eraser against laser fault injection attack

Abstract

A sense-and-react closed-loop countermeasure is proposed against Laser Fault Injection (LFI) attack on a cryptographic processor core. A 286F2/cell distributed bulk-current sensor detects laser injection by abnormal current conduction at bulk contacts. Upon the detection, a flush code eraser avoids exposure of laser-induced faulty ciphertext by shunting the core supply instantaneously at ns order. A protected AES core in 0.18μσι CMOS successfully disables the LFI attack with only +28% area penalty.