Circuit-Level Techniques for Side-Channel Attack Resilience: A tutorial

Abstract

Cryptographic algorithms, despite their computational security, can inadvertently reveal critical information through side channels such as power consumption and electromagnetic radiation. For over two decades, the Solid State Circuits Society (SSCS) community has been investigating low-overhead, generic physical countermeasures that extend beyond provably secure architectural and masking techniques. This paper summarizes prominent circuit-level techniques designed to mitigate side-channel attacks (SCA). Additionally, this work discusses recently introduced attack detectors those demonstrate the potential for further reducing overhead by employing detection and mitigation strategies, thereby eliminating the need for always-on countermeasures. This paper also proposes future directions for circuit-level countermeasures.