Side-Channel Attack Threat Analysis

Version: 1.0
Last Updated: 2025-01-02
Security Classification: PUBLIC

Overview

Side-channel attacks extract information through physical implementation characteristics rather than breaking the mathematical algorithm. These attacks monitor power consumption, electromagnetic emissions, acoustic emanations, or other observable phenomena.

Attack Categories

Power Analysis

Electromagnetic Analysis

Acoustic Cryptanalysis

Optical Emissions

Vulnerability Assessment

Attack Type Equipment Cost Expertise Required Detection Difficulty Impact
Timing Low Low Hard High
Simple Power Medium Medium Hard High
Differential Power High High Very Hard Critical
EM Emissions Medium Medium Hard High
Acoustic Low Low Medium Medium
Fault Injection High High Easy Critical

Countermeasures

Hardware Level

Algorithm Level

Protocol Level

Implementation Guidelines

class SideChannelProtection:
    """Side-channel countermeasures"""
    
    def implement_masking(self, sensitive_value, mask):
        """Boolean masking example"""
        masked_value = sensitive_value ^ mask
        # Process masked_value
        result_masked = process(masked_value)
        # Unmask result
        result = result_masked ^ output_mask
        return result
    
    def implement_shuffling(self, operations):
        """Random execution order"""
        import random
        indices = list(range(len(operations)))
        random.shuffle(indices)
        for i in indices:
            execute(operations[i])

Testing and Validation

Test Methodologies

  1. TVLA (Test Vector Leakage Assessment): Statistical testing
  2. CRI (Correlation Radio Immunity): EM resistance testing
  3. Chi-squared tests: Distribution analysis
  4. Information theoretic metrics: Mutual information analysis

Tools and Frameworks

Real-World Attacks

Standards and Compliance

References