Abstract:


An Information-Theoretic Model for Adaptive 
Side-Channel Attacks


Boris Köpf and David Basin



We present a model of adaptive side-channel 
attacks which we combine with information-theoretic 
metrics to quantify the information revealed to 
an attacker. This allows us to express an attacker's 
remaining uncertainty about a secret as a function 
of the number of side-channel measurements made. We 
present algorithms and approximation techniques for 
computing this measure. We also give examples of how 
they can be used to analyze the resistance of hardware 
implementations of cryptographic functions to both 
timing and power attacks.