Power analysis attack on 8051 microcontrollers

Abstract

In this modern era of electronics almost all day to day activities are governed by electronic devices. Even money transactions have been made electronic with the advent of smart cards. These smart cards contain small controller chips which executes encryption algorithm to make the transactions secure. Though the software algorithm is powerful, their security is weakened when implemented in hardware, as they are vulnerable to power analysis attacks. This paper explores the vulnerability of the widely used 8051 microcontroller to simple power analysis attack.