A method of protecting a modular exponentiation calculation executed by an electronic circuit using a first register and a second register, successively comprising, for each bit of the exponent: a first step of multiplying the content of one of the registers, selected from among the first register and the second register according to the state of the bit of the exponent, by the content of the other one of the first and second registers, placing the result in said one of the registers; a second step of squaring the content of said other one of the registers by placing the result in this other register, wherein the content of said other one of the registers is stored in a third register before the first step and is restored in said other one of the registers before the second step.