Security-Adaptive Voltage Conversion as a Lightweight Countermeasure Against LPA Attacks

Abstract

A voltage converter with adaptive security features is proposed as a lightweight countermeasure against leakage power analysis (LPA) attacks. When an LPA attack is sensed by the proposed security-adaptive (SA) voltage converter, a discharging resistor starts sinking redundant current to alter the signature of the load power dissipation. The power dissipation induced by the discharging resistor is scrambled by the SA voltage converter to maximize the amount of the inserted noise to the input power profile of the cryptographic against LPA attacks. As compared with a conventional cryptographic circuit that does not house any countermeasure, the lowest measurement-to-disclose value of a cryptographic circuit that employs the proposed voltage converter can be enhanced over 6145 times against LPA attacks.