Optimized power trace numbers in CPA attacks

Correlation power analysis is the well-known attack against cryptographic modules. An attacker exploits the correlation between the power consumed by a device and the data being processed. In the present paper, we present the experimental procedure of correlation power analysis using three different devices: FPGA, ASIC and a microcontroller. Results show that the power model used to calculate hypothetical power is related to the algorithm and not to the platform and its validity depends statistically on the implementation.