RTL modeling of laser attacks for early evaluation of secure ICs and countermeasure design

Many aspects of our current life rely on the exchange of data through electronic media. Powerful encryption algorithms guarantee the security, privacy and authentication of these exchanges. Nevertheless, those algorithms are implemented in electronic devices that may be the target of attacks despite their proven robustness. Several means of attacking integrated circuits are reported in the literature (for instance analysis of the correlation between the processed data and power consumption). Among them, laser illumination of the device has been reported to be one important and effective mean to perform attacks. The principle is to illuminate the circuit by mean of a laser and then to induce an erroneous behavior.For instance, in so-called Differential Fault Analysis (DFA), an attacker can deduce the secret key used in the crypto-algorithms by comparing the faulty result and the correct one. Other types of attacks exist, also based on fault injection but not requiring a differential analysis; the safe error attacks or clocks attacks are such examples.The main goal of the PhD thesis was to provide efficient CAD tools to secure circuit designers in order to evaluate counter-measures against such laser attacks early in the design process. This thesis has been driven by two Grenoble INP laboratories: LCIS and TIMA. The work has been carried out in the frame of the collaborative ANR project LIESSE involving several other partners, including STMicroelectronics.A RT level model of laser effects has been developed, capable of emulating laser attacks. The fault model was used in order to evaluate several different secure cryptographic implementations through FPGA emulated fault injection campaigns. The injection campaigns were performed in collaboration with TIMA laboratory and they allowed to compare the results with other state of the art fault models. Furthermore, the approach was validated versus the layout of several circuits. The layout based validation allowed to quantify the effectiveness of the fault model to predict localized faults. Additionally, in collaboration with CMP (Centre Microelectronique de Provence) experimental laser fault injections has been performed on a state of the art STMicroelectronics IC and the results have been used for further validation of the fault model. Finally the validated fault model led to the development of an RTL (Register Transfer Level) countermeasure against laser attacks. The countermeasure was implemented and evaluated by fault injection campaigns according to the developed fault model, other state of the art fault models and versus layout information.

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