Systematic security evaluation method against C safe-error attacks

Abstract

This paper proposes a systematic security evaluation of cryptographic hardware against C safe-error attacks. Using the graph representation of a design, we provide a simple and efficient method to detect possible C safe-errors. Exposing possible vulnerabilities at an early stage of a design process, this method avoids costly design re-spins and reduces time-to-market. As a proof of concept, we apply the method to two well-known exponentiation algorithms: square-and-multiply-always and the Montgomery ladder.