kth.sePublications KTH
Change search
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf
A Chosen-Ciphertext Side-Channel Attack on Protected ML-KEM Using Pairwise Bit-Flipping
KTH, School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS), Electronics and Embedded Systems.ORCID iD: 0000-0001-6281-4091
KTH, School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS), Electronics and Embedded Systems.ORCID iD: 0000-0003-2021-2994
KTH, School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS), Electronics and Embedded Systems.ORCID iD: 0000-0001-7382-9408
2026 (English)In: Proceedings - 2026 IEEE European Test Symposium, ETS 2026, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) , 2026Conference paper, Published paper (Refereed)
Abstract [en]

Post-quantum cryptography addresses the threat posed by large-scale quantum computers to current public-key cryptosystems. After an eight-year evaluation process, NIST has standardized ML-KEM, a quantum-resistant scheme for publickey encryption and key encapsulation, whose global deployment is anticipated by 2035. Beyond algorithmic security, the resistance of physical implementations of ML-KEM to sidechannel attacks is important for a secure transition. This paper evaluates the resistance of a software implementation of MLKEM protected against side-channel analysis using masking and shuffling. Despite these countermeasures, we can recover the secret key using only one third of the traces compared to the state-of-the-art attack. Our main contribution is a novel chosenciphertext construction method that 1) circumvents the shuffling countermeasure, and 2) overcomes the inter-device variation problem. This method is applicable not only to ML-KEM, but also to other lattice-based PKE or KEM algorithms. We provide an in-depth analysis of the attack methodology, validate the attack on an ARM Cortex-M4 platform recommended by NIST for benchmarking, and suggest potential countermeasures for hardening ML-KEM implementations against side-channel attacks.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) , 2026.
Keywords [en]
Bit-Flipping, CRYSTALS-Kyber, Chosen-Ciphertext Construction, ML-KEM, Masking, Shuffling, Side-Channel Attack
National Category
Communication Systems Computer Sciences Computer Engineering
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-386489DOI: 10.1109/ETS69887.2026.11591846Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-105045280122OAI: oai:DiVA.org:kth-386489DiVA, id: diva2:2089963
Conference
31st IEEE European Test Symposium, ETS 2026, Chania, Greece, May 25-29 2026
Note

Part of ISBN 979-8-3195-1763-0

QC 20260805

Available from: 2026-08-05 Created: 2026-08-05 Last updated: 2026-08-05Bibliographically approved

Open Access in DiVA

No full text in DiVA

Other links

Publisher's full textScopus

Authority records

Wang, RuizeBacklund, LinusDubrova, Elena

Search in DiVA

By author/editor
Wang, RuizeBacklund, LinusDubrova, Elena
By organisation
Electronics and Embedded Systems
Communication SystemsComputer SciencesComputer Engineering

Search outside of DiVA

GoogleGoogle Scholar

doi
urn-nbn

Altmetric score

doi
urn-nbn
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf