Side-channel Attack Using Word Embedding and Long Short Term Memories

Abstract

Side-channel attack (SCA) based on machine learning has proved to be a valid technique in cybersecurity, especially subjecting to the symmetric-key crypto implementations in serial operation. At the same time, parallel-encryption computing based on Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) grows into a new influencer, but the attack results using machine learning are exiguous. Research on the traditional SCA has been mostly restricted to pre-processing: Signal Noisy Ratio (SNR) and Principal Component Analysis (PCA), etc. In this work, firstly, we propose to replace Points of Interests (POIs) and dimensionality reduction by utilizing word embedding, which converts power traces into sensitive vectors. Secondly, we combined sensitive vectors with Long Short Term Memories (LSTM) to execute SCA based on FPGA crypto-implementations. In addition, compared with traditional Template Attack (TA), Multiple Multilayer Perceptron (MLP) and Convolutional Neural Network (CNN). The result shows that the proposed model can not only reduce the manual operation, such as parametric assumptions and dimensionality setting, which limits their range of application, but improve the effectiveness of side-channel attacks as well.