Case Study: Horizontal Side-Channel Analysis Attack against Elliptic Curve Scalar Multiplication Accelerator under Laser Illumination

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates a novel horizontal side-channel attack using laser illumination on an elliptic curve cryptographic accelerator, highlighting potential vulnerabilities in scaled technology chips and suggesting future countermeasures.

Contribution

It introduces the concept of Static Consumption under Laser Illumination (SCuLI) attacks, a new form of side-channel analysis exploiting static power consumption under laser illumination.

Findings

Laser illumination increases static power consumption.

Horizontal power analysis attacks remain effective under laser illumination.

Potential for improved attack success with higher laser power.

Abstract

Devices employing cryptographic approaches have to be resistant to physical attacks. Side-Channel Analysis (SCA) and Fault Injection (FI) attacks are frequently used to reveal cryptographic keys. In this paper, we present a combined SCA and laser illumination attack against an Elliptic Curve Scalar Multiplication accelerator using a differential probe from Teledyne LeCroy. Our experiments show that laser illumination increases the power consumption of the chip, especially its static power consumption but the success of the horizontal power analysis attacks was changed insignificantly. We assume that using a laser with a high laser beam power and concentrating on measuring and analysing only static current can improve the attack success significantly. The horizontal attacks against public key cryptosystems exploiting the Static Consumption under Laser Illumination (SCuLI attacks) are novel and their potential is not investigated yet. These attacks can be especially dangerous against cryptographic chips manufactured in scaled technologies. If such attacks are feasible, appropriate countermeasures have to be proposed in the future.