Modelling of Tamper-Proof Devices

tamper-proof hardware, cryptographic attacks, cryptography, heterogeneous modelling, HELEF

This paper deals with modelling the certain security aspects of hardware implementations of cryptographic mechanisms. These implementations are called tamper-proof devices and they are typically smart cards or cryptographic coprocessThe design of most available tamper-proof devices does not deal with various forms of side effects of cryptographic algorithms execution. A side-channel is the term commonly used for places where such undesirable information appears. The volume and usefulness of information we are able to extract depends on the form of the side-channel. However, number of scientific papers proves that it is possible to effectively analyse information from side-channels and use the results for compromise of tamper-proof devices.

This paper deals with modelling the certain security aspects of hardware implementations of cryptographic mechanisms. These implementations are called tamper-proof devices and they are typically smart cards or cryptographic coprocess. The design of most available tamper-proof devices does not deal with various forms of side effects of cryptographic algorithms execution. A side-channel is the term commonly used for places where such undesirable information appears. The volume and usefulness of information we are able to extract depends on the form of the side-channel. However, number of scientific papers proves that it is possible to effectively analyse information from side-channels and use the results for compromise of tamper-proof devices.