Lightweight Masking Against Static Power Side-Channel Attacks

This paper presents a novel defense strategy against static power side-channel attacks (PSCAs), a critical threat to cryptographic security. Our method is based on (1) carefully tuning high-Vth versus low-Vth cell selection during synthesis, accounting for both security and timing impact, and (2), at runtime, randomly switching the operation between these cells. This approach serves to significantly obscure static power patterns, which are at the heart of static PSCAs. Our experimental results on a commercial 28nm node show a drastic …

accounting attacks channel critical cryptographic cryptographic security cs.cr defense high impact low masking novel power runtime security side-channel side-channel attacks strategy threat