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Data and Computational Fault Detection Mechanism for Devices That Perform Modular Exponentiation

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Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNSC,volume 4236))

Abstract

Fault attacks have become an efficient methodology for extracting secrets stored in embedded devices, and proper countermeasures against such attacks are nowadays considered necessary. This paper describes a simple method for foiling transient fault attacks on devices that perform modular exponentiation with a secret exponent. In the considered scenario, acknowledging an error only at the end of the computations leaks out secret information, and should be avoided. To tackle this difficulty, we propose a scheme that checks, independently, each step (i.e., multiplication/squaring) of the exponentiation algorithm, and aborts the procedure as soon as an error is detected, without completing the computation.

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© 2006 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Gueron, S. (2006). Data and Computational Fault Detection Mechanism for Devices That Perform Modular Exponentiation. In: Breveglieri, L., Koren, I., Naccache, D., Seifert, JP. (eds) Fault Diagnosis and Tolerance in Cryptography. FDTC 2006. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 4236. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/11889700_8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/11889700_8

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-46250-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-46251-4

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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