Cryptographic Modules Research Articles

Protecting FPGA-Based Cryptohardware Implementations from Fault Attacks Using ADCs.

The majority of data exchanged between connected devices are confidential and must be protected against unauthorized access. To ensure data protection, so-called cryptographic algorithms are used. These algorithms have proven to be mathematically secure against brute force due to the key length, but their physical implementations are vulnerable against physical attacks. The physical implementation of these algorithms can result in the disclosure of information that can be used to access confidential data. Some of the most powerful hardware attacks presented in the literature are called fault injection attacks. These attacks involve introducing a malfunction into the normal operation of the device and then analyzing the data obtained by comparing them with the expected behavior. Some of the most common methods for injecting faults are the variation of the supply voltage and temperature or the injection of electromagnetic pulses. In this paper, a hardware design methodology using analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) is presented to detect attacks on cryptocircuits and prevent information leakage during fault injection attacks. To assess the effectiveness of the proposed design approach, FPGA-based ADC modules were designed that detect changes in temperature and supply voltage. Two setups were implemented to test the scheme against voltage and temperature variations and injections of electromagnetic pulses. The results obtained demonstrate that, in 100% of the cases, when the correct operating voltage and temperature range were established, the detectors could activate an alarm signal when the cryptographic module was attacked, thus avoiding confidential information leakage and protecting data from being exploited.

Smart Grid Security: A PUF-Based Authentication and Key Agreement Protocol

A smart grid is an electricity network that uses advanced technologies to facilitate the exchange of information and electricity between utility companies and customers. Although most of the technologies involved in such grids have reached maturity, smart meters—as connected devices—introduce new security challenges. To overcome this significant obstacle to grid modernization, safeguarding privacy has emerged as a paramount concern. In this paper, we begin by evaluating the security levels of recently proposed authentication methods for smart meters. Subsequently, we introduce an enhanced protocol named PPSG, designed for smart grids, which incorporates physical unclonable functions (PUF) and an elliptic curve cryptography (ECC) module to address the vulnerabilities identified in previous approaches. Our security analysis, utilizing a real-or-random (RoR) model, demonstrates that PPSG effectively mitigates the weaknesses found in prior methods. To assess the practicality of PPSG, we conduct simulations using an Arduino UNO board, measuring computation, communication, and energy costs. Our results, including a processing time of 153 ms, a communication cost of 1376 bits, and an energy consumption of 13.468 mJ, align with the requirements of resource-constrained devices within smart grids.

A LIGHTWEIGHT ENCRYPTION ALGORITHM TO SECURE IOT DEVICES

Lightweight cryptography is an effective solution for ensuring confidentiality and privacy in resource-constrained environments, particularly in Internet of Things (IoT) systems. These systems consist of a large number of IoT devices, such as sensor nodes and embedded devices that handle sensitive data and are connected via the Internet, making them susceptible to various types of attacks. Considering the constrained processing capability, memory size, and energy of these devices, this article proposes a lightweight block cipher that aims to provide security for IoT devices, with a focus on achieving efficient software implementation, particularly in devices with 32-bit processors. The structural design of the suggested algorithm is based on Type-2 Generalized Feistel Networks (GFN), which are based on four branches of 32-bit and simple key scheduling. To enhance the diffusion and strength of the GFN structure, a partial permutation layer has been added to the cipher. Moreover, to reduce the implementation cost, a simple round function has been designed using low-cost operations like Addition, XOR, and Rotation. Security of the suggested algorithm has been validated through security analysis, and the results show meeting the criteria for avalanche effect with 50.97% Key Sensitivity and 50.58% Plaintext Sensitivity, and the correlation coefficienttest results indicate a weak correlation between the plaintext and ciphertext, this makes it difficult to retrieve the plaintext from the ciphertext. When designing lightweight algorithms, one of the primary objectives is to enhance performance. To evaluate the algorithm's performance, we tested its execution time, code size, memory consumption, and throughput on real IoT devices, such as ESP8266 and ESP32, as an embedded cryptographic module. Based on the experimental results and security analysis, the suggested algorithm showed a good grade of security and higher performance in encryption and decryption operations than other lightweight algorithms, which makes it capable of providing a framework for securing data in the restricted IoT environment.

Efficient Noninvasive Fault Injection Method Utilizing Intentional Electromagnetic Interference

In the fault injection method, an electromagnetic (EM) wave is injected to temporarily cause a fault at a specific time of the encryption process, the faulty outputs are obtained from the cryptographic device, and the secret key is extracted by analyzing the faulty outputs. In the conventional method, the intentional electromagnetic interference (IEMI) wave is injected at a random time because it is difficult to obtain information on the start time of the encryption process. Thus, a cryptographic module must execute a large number of encryption trials before the occurrence of a fault that enables the secret key to be extracted. In this article, we propose a fault injection method that can generate the faults at a specific time with high probability, which is like the method of injecting an IEMI wave synchronized with the start time of the encryption process. The proposed method inserts glitches into the encryption process at fixed times by injecting a continuous sinusoidal wave of a specific frequency while controlling the amplitude and phase. This generates faults required for the secret key analysis method with a high probability even when the start time of the encryption process cannot be obtained. We experimentally demonstrate the impact of the aforementioned IEMI using the advanced encryption standard, which is an ISO/IEC 18033 block cipher, implemented as a module on a standard evaluation board. The conventional method requires more than 30 000 encryption processes to obtain the secret key. In contrast, the results indicate that we can obtain the secret key with approximately 22 encryption processes which is almost three orders of magnitude less than that with the conventional method. This confirms that secret keys can be extracted in a brief period of time. Moreover, devices previously excluded from IEMI-based fault injection because they can only be accessed for a brief period because their physical access was surveilled, may now be the target of the threat.

Practical Entropy Accumulation for Random Number Generators with Image Sensor-Based Quantum Noise Sources.

The efficient generation of high-quality random numbers is essential in the operation of cryptographic modules. The quality of a random number generator is evaluated by the min-entropy of its entropy source. The typical method used to achieve high min-entropy of the output sequence is an entropy accumulation based on a hash function. This is grounded in the famous Leftover Hash Lemma, which guarantees a lower bound on the min-entropy of the output sequence. However, the hash function-based entropy accumulation has slow speed in general. For a practical perspective, we need a new efficient entropy accumulation with the theoretical background for the min-entropy of the output sequence. In this work, we obtain the theoretical bound for the min-entropy of the output random sequence through the very efficient entropy accumulation using only bitwise XOR operations, where the input sequences from the entropy source are independent. Moreover, we examine our theoretical results by applying them to the quantum random number generator that uses dark shot noise arising from image sensor pixels as its entropy source.

An Anonymous Authentication Scheme Based on Chinese Residue Theorem in Wireless Body Area Networks

Considering the resource limitations of low-cost wireless sensors, there is a growing inclination to utilize cryptographic primitives that are optimized for efficiency, such as symmetric key encryption/decryption and hash functions, when designing authentication schemes. However, designing a lightweight authentication scheme that can meet various security requirements poses a significant challenge. In recent years, numerous lightweight authentication schemes have been proposed in order to address these security needs. Nevertheless, recent research has revealed that many of these schemes exhibit security vulnerabilities and design deficiencies, including challenges related to asynchronization and impractical gateway-node search operations. Due to the inadequate security of existing schemes, this study introduces a novel privacy-preserving authentication scheme that aims to provide adaptive resilience against desynchronization attacks in wireless body area networks (WBANs). The proposed scheme utilizes lightweight cryptographic modules to optimize efficiency. To ensure user anonymity, the Chinese Remainder Theorem technique is employed, whereas forward secrecy and resistance to desynchronization attacks are achieved through the use of one-way hash chains and serial numbers, respectively. Through extensive analysis and comparisons, the proposed scheme is demonstrated to strike a fine balance between security and efficiency.

Testing and reliability enhancement of security primitives: Methodology and experimental validation

The test of security primitives is particularly strategic as any bias coming from the implementation or environment can wreak havoc on the security it is intended to provide. This paper presents how some security properties are tested on hardware security primitives including True Random Number Generation (TRNG), Physically Unclonable Function (PUF), and cryptographic modules. Moreover, we discuss how the sensors embedded to protect cryptographic modules against fault injection attacks should be calibrated over time to fulfill the requirement it was designed for. The testing we discuss in this paper is different from the conventional testing where we consider a fault model and generate test patterns via an ATPG to detect such faults. The test of TRNG and PUF to ensure a high level of security is mainly about the entropy assessment, which requires specific statistical tests. The security against side-channel analysis (SCA) of cryptographic primitives, like the substitution box in symmetric cryptography, is generally ensured by masking. However, the hardware implementation of masking can be damaged by glitches, which create leakages on sensitive variables. Accordingly, a test method is to search for nets of the cryptographic netlist, which are vulnerable to glitches. Finally, the Digital Sensor (DS) is an efficient primitive to detect disturbances and raise alarms in the case of fault injection attack (FIA). The dimensioning of this primitive requires a precise test to take into account the environmental variations including aging.This paper extends on a conference paper presented at DFTS’21 by the same co-authors, where the test methodology for three critical security primitives is presented. In addition, in this paper, we add experimental validation to show how such testing methodology is applied in practice.

A survey on low-cost development boards for applying cryptography in IoT systems

The accelerated growth of the Internet of Things (IoT) around the world is noticeable in applications such as smart homes or smart health. The main manufacturers of electronic devices are offering alternatives for the easy implementation of IoT projects by using low-cost development boards with advanced performance and information security features. The importance of maintaining privacy in data exchange has been considered by these manufacturers have added dedicated cryptographic modules that are compatible with the main cryptographic algorithms. The most significant problem with these modules is that albeit the use of cryptographic algorithms, there are information security weaknesses in hardware implementations to be considered. The purpose of this survey is to theoretically compare the characteristics of the development boards currently used for cryptographic applications in IoT systems. From a rigorous selection, seven of thirty-one possible development boards for IoT were selected and compared under two fundamental requirements: low-cost and cryptographic security mechanism offered. As a consequence of the study performed and the development boards analyzed in this work, it was possible to generate a guide for the selection of secure development boards for IoT applications.

A Detection method of electromagnetic analysis attacks based on change in amplitude of noise around integrated circuits

Electromagnetic analysis (EMA) attacks are a type of side-channel attacks that can be performed without opening or modifying a cryptographic module. In this study, we propose a detection method for the measurement of side-channel information, which is performed at the preliminary stage of the analysis of the target device as a countermeasure against EMA attacks performed near integrated circuits (ICs) with cryptographic modules. The presence of an electromagnetic (EM) field probe is detected by analyzing the sampling background noise around the IC using an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) inside the IC and by observing any changes in the EM environment. The proposed method can effectively detect a probe placed 5 cm from the IC package.

Encryption Methods and Algorithms Based on Domestic Standards in Open-Source Operating Systems

The paper describes the principles and methods underlying the creation of an application in secure operating systems, which provides reliable data encryption. The research aims to analyze and indicate the specifics of encryption methods and algorithms based on domestic standards in open-source operating systems. Cryptanalysis was used in the article, as this avoids vulnerabilities identified in previously created implementations. In the article, the authors draw attention to the fact that 7-Zip uses CBC encryption (concatenation of encrypted text blocks), but the Counter Mode is supported. The same support was provided in the encrypt implementation. Since the key expansion function initially fills the special array created by p7zip with round keys using a unique property of the domestic standard, only one round encryption function was created (performed both during encryption and decryption). This method is also used in various modes. In many cases, initialization time deviations depending on the selected mode are insignificant. The created cryptographic module was tested to meet the domestic standard, which contains several test cases. It was confirmed during the tests that the created module implements the algorithm of the domestic standard. The article shows a way to implement a fairly convenient graphical interface for accessing the cryptographic module, which enables the user not to call the command line and remember the sequence and types of parameters passed to p7zip. This implementation also takes into account the verification of the correctness of decryption and the reading of other error codes.

Data and Service Security of GNSS Sensors Integrated with Cryptographic Module.

Navigation and positioning are of increasing importance because they are becoming a new form of infrastructure. To ensure both development and security, this study designed a technical innovation structure to upgrade the GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System) data transmission and real-time differential correction service system and proposed a new multiple cryptographic fusion algorithm to achieve the encryption and decryption of GNSS data and services. First, a GNSS station encrypts GNSS data with an encryption key and obtains a public key from a GNSS data center to encrypt the GNSS data encryption key. After that, identity authentication of a GNSS station is carried out, and an SSL VPN is established between the GNSS station and a GNSS data center before GNSS data are transmitted to the GNSS data center. Then, the GNSS data center decrypts the received GNSS data. The process of an intelligent terminal for real-time differential corrections is similar to that of the GNSS station and the GNSS data center. A GNSS sensor integrated with a cryptographic module was developed to validate the structure in an open environment. The results showed that the developed GNSS sensor was successful in encrypting the data, and the GNSS data center was able to decrypt the data correctly. For the performance test, a cryptography server was able support the requirements of GNSS applications. However, a cryptography server was optimal in supporting 40~50 GNSS stations simultaneously, whereas a cluster was suggested to be configured if the number of GNSS stations was more than 60. In conclusion, the method was able to ensure the validity, confidentiality, integrity, and non-repudiation of GNSS data and services. The proposed upgrading technology was suitable for coordinating GNSS development and security.

ВПЛИВАТАК ЗА ПОБІЧНИМИ КАНАЛАМИ НА ІНФОРМАЦІЙНУ БЕЗПЕКУ

The main structural elements of security mechanisms based on cryptography are cryptographic primitives, namely cryptographic algorithms -symmetric ciphers, public key ciphers and hash functions, which are used to implement the necessary functions of the security mechanism. In order for the cryptographic system to ensure information security, it is necessary that the secret keys used in the cryptographic algorithms for security implementation remain secret (not revealed) under any circumstances. However, in practice, the implementation and operation of cryptographic security mechanisms is far from the perfection of an ideal "black box". That is why side channel attacks are a serious threat to the security of cryptographic modules and, as a result, to the information security of computing and communication systems. Therefore, when implementing protection mechanisms, all possibilities of such attacks should be evaluated and all aspects of their application should be taken into account.The analysis of scientific works in the field of protection of cryptographic systems against attacks by side channels proved that these issues are not given enough attention today.The purpose of the article is the study of attacks through side channels on the implementation of crypto-protection mechanisms, the analysis of the features of their implementation, and an overview of the mechanisms for ensuring information security during the destructive effects of these attacks.The paper considers one of the practical directions of cryptanalysis -attacks through side channels on the implementation of crypto-protection mechanisms. The differences between theoretical cryptanalysis and side-channel attacks are studied. The possibilities of side-channel attacks and the specifics of failure injection attacks are analyzed. The features of ensuring information security during the implementation of cryptographic algorithms for protection against side channel attacks are considered. The need to take into account the threat of these attacks when ensuring the information security of computer and communication systems is proven

Electromagnetic Side-Channel Analysis Against TERO-Based TRNG

True random number generators (TRNGs) based on ring oscillators are employed in many devices because they can be constructed with logic gates only. Random numbers generated by TRNGs are used for various cryptographic systems as session keys, nonces, and masks. The randomness of a TRNG is characterized by uniformity, nonreproducibility, and unpredictability. Moreover, the quality of random numbers affects cryptographic systems. In particular, degradation of the unpredictability can reduce the security of the cryptographic system because random numbers can be easily estimated. Side-channel attacks, which exploit additional information leaked from a cryptographic module to reveal secret information, are well known. If some additional information reflecting the output bit can be measured from electromagnetic (EM) emission as a side-channel leakage against a TRNG, the unpredictability of the TRNG may decrease. Accordingly, this article introduces the leakage model that reflects an output bit generated by a transition effect ring oscillator (TERO) based TRNG, and an attack that estimates random number bits by measuring EM emission from an integrated circuit against TERO-based TRNG. We propose a leakage model against a TERO-based TRNG and demonstrate that the output bits of the TRNG can be estimated by analyzing the radiated emissions. We also consider a countermeasure against the proposed attack.

Modeling cryptographic algorithms validation and developing block ciphers with electronic code book for a control system at nuclear power plants

Nuclear power plants have recognized the importance of nuclear cybersecurity. Based on regulatory guidelines and security-related standards issued by regulatory agencies around the world including IAEA, NRC, and KINAC, nuclear operating organizations and related systems manufacturing organizations, design companies, and regulatory agencies are considering methods to prepare for nuclear cybersecurity. Cryptographic algorithms have to be developed and applied in order to meet nuclear cybersecurity requirements. This paper presents methodologies for validating cryptographic algorithms that should be continuously applied at the critical control system of I&C in NPPs. Through the proposed schemes, validation programs are developed in the PLC, which is a critical system of a NPP’s I&C, and the validation program is verified through simulation results. Since the development of a cryptographic algorithm validation program for critical digital systems of NPPs has not been carried out, the methodologies proposed in this paper could provide guidelines for Cryptographic Module Validation Modeling for Control Systems in NPPs. In particular, among several CMVP, specific testing techniques for ECB mode-based block ciphers are introduced with program codes and validation models.

Data Encryption Using Morse Code

Cryptography in general means hiding, while in technical terms cryptography means protecting data from unauthorized access of someone, or cryptography can be considered as a method that ciphers the data so that the data can neither be read nor understood by humans. With the increasing level of internet consumption, the security of our data is the main concern. Due to increasing cyber-attacks, and over-relying on the internet, a lot of users’ data has been compromised. This has brought our attention to data security and cryptographic algorithms. Data security ensures the data of users is not being compromised and is present in such a format that an intruder won’t get access to our data, it ensures that the data is accessible to the intended user only, and anybody else can neither read nor change the data. To achieve such security, some algorithms or processes are needed. One such algorithm can be derived using Morse code since data in Morse code uses dots and dashes to represent alphabets and numbers. Even if such encryption is used directly, it may cause some threat to the user’s data as anyone with knowledge of Morse code can easily decrypt it, so to get more safety, the encrypted data is needed to be encrypted again with some other algorithm. Now, other than data safety, the safety of the algorithm is also required, as if someone gets to know about the algorithm, they can decrypt the data. The Python programming language provides a module named Cryptography in which Fernet can be used to encrypt the algorithm file as well as the data file again. Cryptography in python uses a symmetric encryption technique, i.e., it uses the same key to encrypt and decrypt the data. This technique is faster compared to asymmetric techniques. This paper demonstrates how Morse code, time & Python’s Cryptography module can be used together to provide maximum data safety.

An ANOVA Method to Rapidly Assess Information Leakage Near Cryptographic Modules

A measurement method based on the analysis of variance <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">F</i> -statistic is presented to rapidly evaluate cryptographic modules’ vulnerability to fine-grained EM side-channel analysis (SCA) attacks. The proposed method assumes that evaluators can control the device under test to set carefully chosen inputs to computations of interest and to repeat measurements as many times as needed. It identifies optimal measurement configurations—that minimize the marginal cost for repeated attacks to extract the data of interest—in three stages. In the first two stages, the variances in observed fields are analyzed using specially designed test cases and low <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">F-</i> value measurement configurations susceptible to noise are eliminated. In the third stage, the data of interest are extracted via a correlation-analysis attack using the remaining, high <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">F-</i> value, configurations. The method is used to evaluate nine Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) implementations, seven of which were hardened against EM SCA attacks. The test cases for the first two stages are constructed by generating extreme AES encryption keys and input plaintexts. The least/most effective countermeasures are found to increase the marginal cost of EM SCA attacks by ∼1.1×/>30×; the proposed method could evaluate the vulnerabilities of hardened AES modules using ∼1.5–37× fewer measurements than alternatives.

Enabling Fog-Blockchain Computing for Autonomous-Vehicle-Parking System: A Solution to Reinforce IoT-Cloud Platform for Future Smart Parking.

With the advent of modern technologies, including the IoT and blockchain, smart-parking (SP) systems are becoming smarter and smarter. Similar to other automated systems, and particularly those that require automation or minimal interaction with humans, the SP system is heuristic in delivering performances, such as throughput in terms of latency, efficiency, privacy, and security, and it is considered a long-term cost-effective solution. This study looks ahead to future trends and developments in SP systems and presents an inclusive, long-term, effective, and well-performing smart autonomous vehicle parking (SAVP) system that explores and employs the emerging fog-computing and blockchain technologies as robust solutions to strengthen the existing collaborative IoT–cloud platform to build and manage SP systems for autonomous vehicles (AVs). In other words, the proposed SAVP system offers a smart-parking solution, both indoors and outdoors, and mainly for AVs looking for vacant parking, wherein the fog nodes act as a middleware layer that provides various parking operations closer to IoT-enabled edge devices. To address the challenges of privacy and security, a lightweight integrated blockchain and cryptography (LIBC) module is deployed, which is functional at each fog node, to authorize and grant access to the AVs in every phase of parking (e.g., from the parking entrance to the parking slot to the parking exit). A proof-of-concept implementation was conducted, wherein the overall computed results, such as the average response time, efficiency, privacy, and security, were examined as highly efficient to enable a proven SAVP system. This study also examined an innovative pace, with careful considerations to combatting the existing SP-system challenges and, therefore, to building and managing future scalable SP systems.

A Novel Undeniable (t, n)-Threshold Signature with Cheater Identification

A digital signature is one of the most widely used cryptographic primitives in asymmetry cryptography. According to the security requirements in different symmetry or asymmetry network models, various digital signatures have been developed in the literature. To protect the right of the signer, Chaum and Antrepen first introduced the concept of an undeniable signature, where interactive protocols are needed for the verification process. Besides, a signer can, also, perform a disavowal protocol to prove that they did not sign the message. On the other hand, threshold cryptography is, usually, used to protect the system from a single point of failure. In a (t,n)-threshold signature scheme, as long as t people in the group of n people participate, the signature can be smoothly signed. By combining these two features, an undeniable threshold signature enjoys the advantages from both sides. After our survey, we found that the existing undeniable threshold signature schemes are either insecure or apply impractical assumptions. Thus, in this manuscript, we aim at designing a novel and provably secure undeniable threshold signature scheme. The proposed scheme is formally proven to be unforgeable and invisible. Besides, our scheme supports cheater identification, which allows one to find the cheater, when a signing protocol fails. Moreover, the proposed scheme can be performed without the help of trusted third parties or secure cryptographic modules, which would be more practical when our scheme is deployed in real-world applications.

A dual‐system trusted computing node construction method based on ARM multi‐core CPU architecture

SummaryComputer node security is the source and foundation of information system security. Trusted computing dual system architecture is an important implementation method to solve the security assurance by establishing the dual system of computing nodes, on the one hand, to achieve isolation on the other hand to achieve the active metrics of the system. This article systematically analyzes the dual architecture of trusted computing, summarizes the security assurance implementation of the dual architecture of trusted computing as the problem of trusted platform control module (TPCM) trusted root parallel access bus, and designs and implements it using ARM multi‐core CPU architecture, and designs the basic hardware security assurance capabilities such as TPCM resource isolation, active metrics, secure communication and other key components of trusted cryptography module and trusted software base based on it, thus implementing the two core mechanisms of trustworthy computing, namely, trust chain construction and dynamic metrics, are implemented. The design of system integration in computing node devices based on this ARM multi‐core CPU architecture is proposed, and the related design and implementation methods are proposed, and finally, the prototype implementation and test verification are performed on the Phytium CPU platform.

A Novel Model for Resisting Side Channel Attack by Masking of Gates

The XOR gate is often used in cryptography modules. These cells' hardware implementations are subject to power analysis attacks. Correlation power attacks (CPAs) allow an attacker to estimate a highly correlated hypothetical value from the actual hidden value. By masking the input and unmaking the output, the present countermeasure technology randomises the power consumption pattern and increases the number of cells. We proposed the mask XOR gate in this study because they do not require cell unmasking and demonstrate a smaller correlation between power traces and input data.