A Masked Pure-Hardware Implementation of Kyber Cryptographic Algorithm

Abstract

Quantum computing-specifically Shor's algorithm [1]-presents an existential threat to some standard cryptographic algorithms. In preparation, post-quantum cryptography (PQC) algorithms have been in development and are nearing mathematical and cryptanalytic maturity. Standardization efforts through the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) PQC standardization process have chosen one PKE/KEM algorithm (i.e., CRYSTALS-Kyber) and three digital signature algorithms (i.e., CRYSTALS-Dilithium, Falcon, and SPHINCS+). CRYSTALS-Kyber is a lattice-based, IND-CCA2-secure, key-encapsulation mechanism (KEM) based on the learning-with-errors problem over module lattices. This paper presents a masked hardware implementation of Kyber that is demonstrably secure against side-channel power analysis methods.