Hamming Distance Model Based Power Analysis for Cryptographic Algorithms

Abstract

In order to evaluate the security of Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) implemented cryptographic algorithms at an early design stage, a Hamming distance model based power analysis is proposed. The Data Encryption Standard (DES) algorithm is taken as an example to illustrate the threats of differential power analysis (DPA) attack against the security of ASIC chip. A DPA attack against the ASIC implementation of a DES algorithm is realized based on hamming distance power model (HD model), and it realized the attack by successfully guessing the right 48-bit subkey. This result indicates that the power analysis attack based on the HD model is simple, rapid and effective for the design and evaluation of security chips.