Theoretical differential fault attacks on FLIP and FiLIP

Abstract

In this article, we examine Differential Fault Attacks (DFA) targeting two stream ciphers, FLIP and FiLIP. We explore the fault model where an adversary flips a single bit of the key at an unknown position. Our analysis involves establishing complexity bounds for these attacks, contingent upon the cryptographic parameters of the Boolean functions employed as filters and the key size. Initially, we demonstrate how the concept of sensitivity enables the detection of the fault position using only a few keystream bits. This represents an enhancement over previous DFA methodologies applied to these ciphers. Subsequently, we leverage the properties of the filter’s derivatives to execute attacks. This approach is universally applicable to any filter, and we delineate specific attack strategies for the two function families previously implemented in these ciphers.