Open AccessSecurity of Constant Weight Countermeasures
Author(s) -
Won YooSeung,
Choi SoungWook,
Park DongWon,
Han DongGuk
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
etri journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.295
H-Index - 46
eISSN - 2233-7326
pISSN - 1225-6463
DOI - 10.4218/etrij.17.0116.0876
Subject(s) - hamming weight , hamming distance , leakage (economics) , constant (computer programming) , computer science , bitwise operation , construct (python library) , weight distribution , mathematics , hamming code , computer security , algorithm , engineering , computer network , decoding methods , economics , macroeconomics , programming language , block code , aerospace engineering
This paper investigates the security of constant weight countermeasures, which aim to produce indistinguishable leakage from sensitive variables and intermediate variables, assuming a constant Hamming distance and/or Hamming weight leakages. To investigate the security of recent countermeasures, contrary to many related studies, we assume that the coefficients of the simulated leakage models follow a normal distribution so that we may construct a model with approximately realistic leakages. First, using our simulated leakage model, we demonstrate security holes in these previous countermeasures. Subsequently, in contrast to the hypotheses presented in previous studies, we confirm the resistance of these countermeasures to a standard correlation power analysis (CPA). However, these countermeasures can allow a bitwise CPA to leak a sensitive variable with only a few thousand traces.