Abstract:
Methods and apparatuses are disclosed for improving DES and other cryptographic protocols against external monitoring attacks by reducing the amount (and signal-to-noise ratio) of useful information leaked during processing. An improved DES implementation of the invention instead uses two 56-bit keys (K1 and K2) (100) and two 64-bit plaintext messages (M1 and M2), each associated with a permutation (i.e., K1P, K2P and M1P, M2P) such that K1P {K1} XOR K2P {K2} equals the "standard" DES key K (110), and M1P {M1} XOR M2P {M2} equals the "standard" message. During operation (145) of the device, the tables are preferably periodically updated, by introducing fresh entropy into the tables faster than information leaks out, so that attackers will not be able to obtain the table contents by analysis of measurements. The technique is implementable in cryptographic smartcards, tamper resistant chips, and secure processing systems of all kinds.
Abstract:
Methods and apparatus for increasing the leak-resistance of cryptographic system using an indexed key update technique are disclosed. By repeatedly applying the update process, information leaking during cryptographic operations that is collected by attackers rapidly becomes obsolete. Thus, such a system can remain secure against attacks involving analysis of measurements of the device's power consumption, electromagnetic characteristics, or other information leaked during transactions. The server then performs a series of operations to determine the sequence of transformation needed to re-derive the correction session key from the client's secret value (190).
Abstract:
Methods and apparatuses are disclosed for securing cryptosystems against external monitoring attacks by reducing the amount (and signal to noise ratio) of useful information leaked during processing. In general, this is accomplished by implementing critical operations using "branchless" or fixed execution path routines (115, 125) whereby the execution path does not vary in any manner that can reveal new information about the secret key during subsequent operations. More particularly, various embodiments of the invention include: implementing modular exponentiation without key-dependent conditional jumps (125); implementing modular exponentiation with fixed memory access patterns (120); implementing modular multiplication without using leak-prone multiplication-by-one operations (115); and implementing leak-minimization multiplication (and other operations) for elliptic curve cryptosystems (130).
Abstract:
A value corresponding to an input for a cryptographic operation may be received. The value may be masked by multiplying the value with a first number modulo a prime number. The cryptographic operation may subsequently be performed on the masked value.
Abstract:
A mechanism for providing secure feature and key management in integrated circuits is described. An example integrated circuit includes a secure memory to store a secret key, and a security manager core, coupled to the secure memory, to receive a digitally signed command, verify a signature associated with the command using the secret key, and configure operation of the integrated circuit using the command.
Abstract:
Cryptographic devices that leak information about their secrets through externally monitorable characteristics (such as electromagnetic radiation and power consumption) may be vulnerable to attack, and previously-known methods that could address such leaking are inappropriate for smartcards and many other cryptographic applications. Methods and apparatuses are disclosed for performing computations in which the representation of data, the number of system state transitions at each computational step, and the Hamming weights of all operands are independent of computation inputs, intermediate values, or results. Exemplary embodiments implemented using conventional (leaky) hardware elements (such as electronic components, logic gates, etc.) as well as software executing on conventional (leaky) microprocessors are described. Smartcards and other tamper-resistant devices of the invention provide greatly improved resistance to cryptographic attacks involving external monitoring.
Abstract:
Cryptographic devices that leak information about their secrets through externally monitorable characteristics (such as electromagnetic radiation and power consumption) may be vulnerable to attack, and previously-known methods that could address such leaking are inappropriate for smartcard and many other cryptographic applications. Methods and apparatuses are disclosed for performing computations in which the representation of data, the number of system state transitions at each computational step, and the Hamming weights of all operands are independent of computation inputs, intermediate values, or results. Exemplary embodiments (figure 6) implemented using conventional hardware elements such as electronic components (611, 613) and logic gates (610, 620, 630, 640) as well as software executing on conventional microprocessors are described.
Abstract:
A physically unclonable function circuit (PUF) is used to generate a fingerprint value based on the uniqueness of the physical characteristics (e.g., resistance, capacitance, connectivity, etc.) of a tamper prevention (i.e., shielding) structure that includes through-silicon vias and metallization on the backside of the integrated circuit. The physical characteristics depend on random physical factors introduced during manufacturing. This causes the chip-to-chip variations in these physical characteristics to be unpredictable and uncontrollable which makes more difficult to duplicate, clone, or modify the structure without changing the fingerprint value. By including the through-silicon vias and metallization on the backside of the integrated circuit as part of the PUF, the backside of the chip can be protected from modifications that can be used to help learn the secure cryptographic keys and/or circumvent the secure cryptographic (or other) circuitry.
Abstract:
Technologies are disclosed to transfer responsibility and control over security from player makers to content authors by enabling integration of security logic and content. An exemplary optical disk (200) carries an encrypted digital video title combined with data processing operations (225) that implement the titles security policies and decryption processes. Player devices include a processing environment (e.g., a real-time virtual machine), which plays content by interpreting its processing operations. Players also provide procedure calls to enable content code to load data from media, perform network communications, determine playback environment configurations (225), access secure non-volatile storage, submit data to CODECs for output (250), and/or perform cryptographic operations. Content can insert forensic watermarks in decoded output for tracing pirate copies. If pirates compromise a player or title, future content can be mastered with security features that, for example, block the attack, revoke pirated media, or use native code to correct player vulnerabilities.