Security-Adaptive Voltage Conversion as a Lightweight Countermeasure Against LPA Attacks

Abstract

A voltage converter with adaptive security features is proposed as a lightweight countermeasure against leakage power analysis (LPA) attacks. When an LPA attack is sensed by the proposed security adaptive (SA) voltage converter, a discharging resistor starts sinking redundant current to alter the signature of the load power dissipation. The power dissipation induced by the discharging resistor is scrambled by the SA voltage converter to maximize the amount of the inserted noise to the input power profile of the cryptographic against LPA attacks. As compared with a conventional cryptographic circuit that does not house any countermeasure, the lowest measurement-to-disclose value of a cryptographic circuit that employs the proposed voltage converter can be enhanced over 6145 times against LPA attacks.

Existing System

Side-Channel Attacks (Scas) Method.

Proposed System

An SA voltage converter is utilized as a lightweight countermeasure against LPA attacks. The discharging resistor in the SA voltage converter can significantly increase the amount of noise insertion in the input power profile when LPA attacks are sensed by the proposed technique. Through scrambling the redundant load power dissipation in the input power profile, the MTD value of a cryptographic circuit that employs the SA voltage converter is enhanced over 6145 times as compared with the MTD value of a conventional cryptographic circuit that has no countermeasure.

Architecture

Architecture of the proposed SA voltage converter