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Side-Channel Attacks on Post-Quantum PKE/KEMs and Digital Signatures
KTH, School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS), Electrical Engineering, Electronics and Embedded systems.ORCID iD: 0000-0001-6281-4091
2025 (English)Doctoral thesis, comprehensive summary (Other academic)
Abstract [en]

Traditional public key cryptosystems rely on the hardness of specific mathematical problems, such as integer factorization and discrete logarithm problem. However, these problems can be solved efficiently by Shor's algorithm on a large-scale quantum computer. Although the development of quantum computers has progressed slowly over the past 40 years, it is estimated that a cryptographically relevant quantum computer is likely to be available in 2040, which intensifies the need for quantum-resistant cryptographic algorithms. In response to the quantum threat, in 2016, NIST launched a competition for standardizing post-quantum cryptographic primitives. In August 2024, NIST selected CRYSTALS-Kyber as the public key encryption and key encapsulation standard, and CRYSTALS-Dilithium as the digital signature standard.

However, algorithms which are secure from the perspective of conventional cryptanalysis may still be vulnerable to physical attacks, such as side-channel attacks. This thesis evaluates the resilience of software implementations of three lattice-based post-quantum cryptographic algorithms: Saber, CRYSTALS-Kyber, and CRYSTALS-Dilithium to side-channel attacks.

The presented results are based on seven appended papers. Two of them focus on side-channel attacks on Saber, four target CRYSTALS-Kyber, and one considers CRYSTALS-Dilithium. The main contributions of the thesis are:

  1. We evaluate and compare power side-channel and EM side-channel attacks, pointing that amplitude-modulated EM emissions are typically weaker and require a higher sampling rate for secret recovery. We also investigate the difficulty of performing attacks on protected and unprotected implementations.
  2. We propose several methods to improve the attack efficiency. For example, a novel neural network model aggregation technique called threshold voting is introduced for deep learning-based attacks. A higher-order attack on CRYSTALS-Kyber is presented by combining the leakages from Barrett reduction and message decoding. Furthermore, an optimal chosen-ciphertext construction strategy is developed to maximize the probability of secret key recovery given a fixed probability of message bit recovery. 
  3. We provide a thorough discussion of various attack scenarios, including attacks on encapsulation, decapsulation, and signing procedures. For each scenario, we outline the assumptions and requirements for a successful attack.
  4. We present countermeasures to mitigate side-channel attacks at both the algorithmic and hardware levels. We also discuss the limitations of these countermeasures, as well as the challenges associated with deep learning-based attacks.

Most of the methods presented in this thesis are not limited to the specific algorithms described in the papers, and can be extended to other algorithms that are similar to Saber, CRYSTALS-Kyber, and CRYSTALS-Dilithium.

Abstract [sv]

Traditionella kryptosystem med offentlig nyckel bygger på svårigheten i specifika matematiska problem, såsom faktorisering av heltal och problemet med diskreta logaritmer. Dessa problem kan dock lösas effektivt med Shors algoritm på en storskalig kvantdator. Även om utvecklingen av kvantdatorer har gått långsamt under de senaste 40 åren, beräknas det att en kryptografiskt relevant kvantdator sannolikt kommer att finnas tillgänglig år 2040, vilket ökar behovet av kvantresistenta kryptografiska algoritmer. Som svar på hotet från kvantdatorer lanserade NIST 2016 en tävling för standardisering av kvantdatorsäkra primitiver. I augusti 2024 valde NIST CRYSTALS-Kyber som standard för asymmetrisk kryptering och nyckelinkapsling, och CRYSTALS-Dilithium som standard för digitala signaturer.

Algoritmer som är säkra ur konventionell kryptanalytisk synvinkel kan dock fortfarande vara sårbara för fysiska attacker, såsom sidokanalsattacker. Denna avhandling utvärderar motståndskraften hos mjukvaruimplementationer av tre gitterbaserade kvantdatorsäkra algoritmer: Saber, CRYSTALS-Kyber och CRYSTALS-Dilithium mot sidokanalsattacker.

De presenterade resultaten baseras på sju bifogade artiklar. Två av dem fokuserar på sidokanalsattacker mot Saber, fyra riktar sig mot CRYSTALS-Kyber, och en behandlar CRYSTALS-Dilithium. Avhandlingens huvudsakliga bidrag är:

  1. Vi utvärderar och jämför effektbaserade och EM-baserade sidokanalsattacker, och påpekar att amplitudmodulerade EM-emissioner typiskt är svagare och kräver högre samplingsfrekvens för att återskapa hemligheter. Vi undersöker även svårigheten med att utföra attacker på skyddade och oskyddade implementationer.
  2. Vi föreslår flera metoder för att förbättra attackeffektiviteten. Till exempel introduceras en ny teknik för aggregering av neurala nätverksmodeller, kallad “threshold voting”, för attacker baserade på djupinlärning. En högre ordningens attack mot CRYSTALS-Kyber presenteras genom att kombinera läckage från Barrett-reduktion och meddelandede-kodning. Dessutom utvecklas en optimal strategi för valda chiffertextattacker för att maximera sannolikheten för att återskapa en hemlig nyckel givet en fast sannolikhet att återskapa av meddelandebitar.
  3. Vi ger en grundlig diskussion av olika attackscenarier, inklusive attacker mot inkapsling, avkapsling och signering. För varje scenario redogör vi för antaganden och krav för en framgångsrik attack.
  4. Vi presenterar motåtgärder för att försvåra sidokanalsattacker både på algoritm- och hårdvarunivå. Vi diskuterar också begränsningarna hos dessa motåtgärder samt utmaningarna med attacker baserade på djupinlärning.

De flesta metoder som presenteras i denna avhandling är inte begränsade till de specifika algoritmer som beskrivs i artiklarna, utan kan även tillämpas på andra algoritmer som liknar Saber, CRYSTALS-Kyber och CRYSTALS-Dilithium.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
KTH Royal Institute of Technology, 2025. , p. xxiv, 125
Series
TRITA-EECS-AVL ; 2025:90
Keywords [en]
Hardware Security, Side-Channel Attacks, Post-Quantum Cryptography, Public Key Encryption, Key Encapsulation Mechanism, Digital Signature
Keywords [sv]
Hårdvarusäkerhet, Sidokanalsattacker, Kvantdatorsäker Kryptografi, Asymmetrisk Kryptering, Nyckelkapslingsmekanism, Digital signatur
National Category
Embedded Systems
Research subject
Information and Communication Technology
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-371765ISBN: 978-91-8106-417-9 (print)OAI: oai:DiVA.org:kth-371765DiVA, id: diva2:2007310
Public defence
2025-11-17, https://kth-se.zoom.us/j/66638877349, F3, Lindstedtsvägen 26, KTH Campus, Stockholm, 13:00 (English)
Opponent
Supervisors
Note

QC 20251019

Available from: 2025-10-19 Created: 2025-10-17 Last updated: 2025-10-27Bibliographically approved
List of papers
1. Side-Channel Analysis of Saber KEM Using Amplitude-Modulated EM Emanations
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Side-Channel Analysis of Saber KEM Using Amplitude-Modulated EM Emanations
2022 (English)In: Proceedings of 2022 25th Euromicro Conference on Digital System Design (DSD), Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) , 2022, p. 488-495Conference paper, Published paper (Refereed)
Abstract [en]

In the ongoing last round of NIST’s post-quantum cryptography standardization competition, side-channel analysis of finalists is a main focus of attention. While their resistance to timing, power and near field electromagnetic (EM) side-channels has been thoroughly investigated, amplitude-modulated EM emanations has not been considered so far.The attacks based on amplitude-modulated EM emanations are more stealthy because they exploit side-channels intertwined into the signal transmitted by the on-board antenna. Thus, they can be mounted on a distance from the device under attack.In this paper, we present the first results of an amplitude-modulated EM side-channel analysis of one of the NIST PQ finalists, Saber key encapsulation mechanism (KEM), implemented on the nRF52832 (ARM Cortex-M4) system-on-chip supporting Bluetooth 5.By capturing amplitude-modulated EM emanations during decapsulation, we can recover each bit of the session key with 0.91 probability on average.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), 2022
National Category
Electrical Engineering, Electronic Engineering, Information Engineering
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-324617 (URN)10.1109/DSD57027.2022.00071 (DOI)000946536500053 ()2-s2.0-85146722154 (Scopus ID)
Conference
25th Euromicro Conference on Digital System Design (DSD), 31 August 2022 - 02 September 2022, Maspalomas, Spain
Note

Part of proceedings ISBN 978-1-6654-7404-7

QC 20230328

Available from: 2023-03-08 Created: 2023-03-08 Last updated: 2025-10-17Bibliographically approved
2. A Message Recovery Attack on LWE/LWR-Based PKE/KEMs Using Amplitude-Modulated EM Emanations
Open this publication in new window or tab >>A Message Recovery Attack on LWE/LWR-Based PKE/KEMs Using Amplitude-Modulated EM Emanations
2023 (English)In: Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Springer Nature , 2023, Vol. 13849, p. 450-471Conference paper, Published paper (Refereed)
Abstract [en]

Creating a good deep learning model is an art which requires expertise in deep learning and a large set of labeled data for training neural networks. Neither is readily available. In this paper, we introduce a method that enables us to recover messages of LWE/LWR-based PKE/KEMs using simple multilayer perceptron (MLP) models trained on a small dataset. The core idea is to extend the attack dataset so that at least one of its traces has the ground truth label to which the models are biased towards. We demonstrate the effectiveness of the presented method on the examples of CRYSTALS-Kyber and Saber algorithms implemented in ARM Cortex-M4 CPU on nRF52832 system-on-chip supporting Bluetooth 5.2.We use amplitude-modulated EM emanations which are typically weaker and noisier than power or near-field EM side channels, and thus more difficult to exploit.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Springer Nature, 2023
Keywords
Public-key cryptography, Post-quantum cryptography, CRYSTALS-Kyber, Saber, LWE/LWR-based KEM, Side-channel attack, EM analysis
National Category
Engineering and Technology
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-324660 (URN)10.1007/978-3-031-29371-9_22 (DOI)000996634000022 ()2-s2.0-85152625186 (Scopus ID)
Conference
25th Annual International Conference on Information Security and Cryptology (ICISC'22), Seoul, South Korea, November 30 – December 2, 2022
Note

QC 20230328

Available from: 2023-03-09 Created: 2023-03-09 Last updated: 2025-10-17
3. A Side-Channel Secret Key Recovery Attack on CRYSTALS-Kyber Using k Chosen Ciphertexts
Open this publication in new window or tab >>A Side-Channel Secret Key Recovery Attack on CRYSTALS-Kyber Using k Chosen Ciphertexts
2023 (English)In: Codes, Cryptology and Information Security - 4th International Conference, C2SI 2023, Proceedings, Springer Nature , 2023, p. 109-128Conference paper, Published paper (Refereed)
Abstract [en]

At CHES’2021, a chosen ciphertext attack combined with belief propagation which can recover the long-term secret key of CRYSTALS-Kyber from side-channel information of the number theoretic transform (NTT) computations was presented. The attack requires k traces from the inverse NTT step of decryption, where k is the module rank, for a noise tolerance in the Hamming weight (HW) leakage on simulated data. In this paper, we present an attack which can recover the secret key of CRYSTALS-Kyber from k chosen ciphertexts using side-channel information of the Barret reduction and message decoding steps of decryption, for. The key novel idea is to create a unique mapping between the secret key coefficients and multiple intermediate variables of these procedures. The redundancy in the mapping patterns enables us to detect errors in the secret key coefficients recovered from side-channel information. We demonstrate the attack on the example of a software implementation of Kyber-768 in ARM Cortex-M4 CPU using deep learning-based power analysis.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Springer Nature, 2023
Series
Lecture Notes in Computer Science ; 13874
Keywords
CRYSTALS-Kyber, post-quantum cryptography, Public-key cryptography, side-channel attack
National Category
Electrical Engineering, Electronic Engineering, Information Engineering
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-338631 (URN)10.1007/978-3-031-33017-9_7 (DOI)2-s2.0-85161187505 (Scopus ID)
Conference
4th International Conference on Codes, Cryptology and Information Security, C2SI 2023, Rabat, Morocco, May 29 2023 - May 31 2023
Note

Part of ISBN 9783031330162

QC 20231102

Available from: 2023-11-02 Created: 2023-11-02 Last updated: 2025-10-17Bibliographically approved
4. A Side-Channel Attack on a Higher-Order Masked CRYSTALS-Kyber Implementation
Open this publication in new window or tab >>A Side-Channel Attack on a Higher-Order Masked CRYSTALS-Kyber Implementation
2024 (English)In: Applied Cryptography and Network Security - 22nd International Conference, ACNS 2024, Proceedings, Springer Nature , 2024, p. 301-324Conference paper, Published paper (Refereed)
Abstract [en]

In response to side-channel attacks on masked implementations of post-quantum cryptographic algorithms, a new bitsliced higher-order masked implementation of CRYSTALS-Kyber has been presented at CHES’2022. The bitsliced implementations are typically more difficult to break by side-channel analysis because they execute a single instruction across multiple bits in parallel. However, in this paper, we reveal new vulnerabilities in the masked Boolean to arithmetic conversion procedure of this implementation that make the shared and secret key recovery possible. We also present a new chosen ciphertext construction method which maximizes secret key recovery probability for a given message bit recovery probability. We demonstrate practical shared and secret key recovery attacks on the first-, second- and third-order masked implementations of Kyber-768 in ARM Cortex-M4 using profiled deep learning-based power analysis.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Springer Nature, 2024
Keywords
Kyber, LWE/LWR-based KEM, Post-quantum cryptography, Public-key cryptography, Side-channel attack
National Category
Other Electrical Engineering, Electronic Engineering, Information Engineering
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-344819 (URN)10.1007/978-3-031-54776-8_12 (DOI)001206024100012 ()2-s2.0-85187721430 (Scopus ID)
Conference
22nd International Conference on Applied Cryptography and Network Security, ACNS 2024, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, Mar 5 2024 - Mar 8 2024
Note

QC 20240409

 Part of ISBN 9783031547751

Available from: 2024-03-28 Created: 2024-03-28 Last updated: 2025-12-05Bibliographically approved
5. A Shared Key Recovery Attack on a Masked Implementation of CRYSTALS-Kyber’s Encapsulation Algorithm
Open this publication in new window or tab >>A Shared Key Recovery Attack on a Masked Implementation of CRYSTALS-Kyber’s Encapsulation Algorithm
2024 (English)In: Foundations and Practice of Security - 16th International Symposium, FPS 2023, Revised Selected Papers, Springer Nature , 2024, p. 424-439Conference paper, Published paper (Refereed)
Abstract [en]

In July 2022, NIST selected CRYSTALS-Kyber as a new post-quantum secure public key encryption and key encapsulation mechanism to be standardized. To safeguard its shared and secret keys from side-channel attacks (SCA), countermeasures such as masking and shuffling are applied. However, the existing SCA-protected implementations of CRYSTALS-Kyber protect the decapsulation algorithm only. The encapsulation algorithm is not covered because single-trace shared key recovery attacks on encapsulation are not considered feasible. Since the same shared key is never encapsulated more than once, the attacker gets only a single trace per shared key from the execution of the encapsulation algorithm. In this paper, we demonstrate a practical single-trace shared key recovery attack on a first-order masked implementation of the encapsulation algorithm of Kyber-768 in ARM Cortex-M4 based on deep learning-assisted power analysis. Our main contribution is a new aggregation method for ensemble learning that enables enumeration during shared key recovery. Our experimental results show that a full shared key can be recovered with a 91% probability on average from a single trace captured from a different from profiling device.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Springer Nature, 2024
Keywords
Kyber, LWE/LWR-based KEM, Post-quantum cryptography, Public-key cryptography, Side-channel attack
National Category
Computer Engineering
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-346848 (URN)10.1007/978-3-031-57537-2_26 (DOI)001280331400027 ()2-s2.0-85192540751 (Scopus ID)
Conference
16th International Symposium on Foundations and Practice of Security, FPS 2023, Bordeaux, France, Dec 11 2023 - Dec 13 2023
Note

QC 20240530

Available from: 2024-05-24 Created: 2024-05-24 Last updated: 2025-10-17Bibliographically approved
6. Breaking a Fifth-Order Masked Implementation of CRYSTALS-Kyber by Copy-Paste
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Breaking a Fifth-Order Masked Implementation of CRYSTALS-Kyber by Copy-Paste
2023 (English)In: PROCEEDINGS OF THE 10TH ACM ASIA PUBLIC-KEY CRYPTOGRAPHY WORKSHOP, APKC 2023, Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) , 2023, p. 10-20Conference paper, Published paper (Refereed)
Abstract [en]

CRYSTALS-Kyber has been selected by the NIST as a public-key encryption and key encapsulation mechanism to be standardized. It is also included in the NSA's suite of cryptographic algorithms recommended for national security systems. This makes it important to evaluate the resistance of CRYSTALS-Kyber's implementations to side-channel attacks. The unprotected and first-order masked software implementations have been already analysed. In this paper, we present deep learning-based message recovery attacks on the omega-order masked implementations of CRYSTALS-Kyber in ARM Cortex-M4 CPU for omega <= 5. The main contribution is a new neural network training method called recursive learning. In the attack on an omega-order masked implementation, we start training from an artificially constructed neural network M-omega whose weights are partly copied from a model M omega-1 trained on the (omega - 1)-order masked implementation, and then extended to one more share. Such a method allows us to train neural networks that can recover a message bit with the probability above 99% from high-order masked implementations.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), 2023
Keywords
Post-quantum cryptography, CRYSTALS-Kyber, side-channel attack, power analysis, deep learning
National Category
Embedded Systems
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-334684 (URN)10.1145/3591866.3593072 (DOI)001032553600002 ()2-s2.0-85168319470 (Scopus ID)
Conference
10th ACM Asia Public-Key Cryptography Workshop (APKC), JUL 10, 2023, Melbourne, AUSTRALIA
Note

QC 20231123

Available from: 2023-08-24 Created: 2023-08-24 Last updated: 2025-10-17Bibliographically approved
7. Unpacking Needs Protection: A Single-Trace Secret Key Recovery Attack on Dilithium
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Unpacking Needs Protection: A Single-Trace Secret Key Recovery Attack on Dilithium
2024 (English)In: IACR Communications in Cryptology, E-ISSN 3006-5496Article in journal (Refereed) Epub ahead of print
Abstract [en]

Most of the previous attacks on Dilithium exploit side-channel information which is leaked during the computation of the polynomial multiplication cs1, where s1 is a small-norm secret and c is a verifier's challenge. In this paper, we present a new attack utilizing leakage during secret key unpacking in the signing algorithm. The unpacking is also used in other post-quantum cryptographic algorithms, including Kyber, because inputs and outputs of their API functions are byte arrays. Exploiting leakage during unpacking is more challenging than exploiting leakage during the computation of cs1 since c varies for each signing, while the unpacked secret key remains constant. Therefore, post-processing is required in the latter case to recover a full secret key. We present two variants of post-processing. In the first one, a half of the coefficients of the secret s1 and the error s2 is recovered by profiled deep learning-assisted power analysis and the rest is derived by solving linear equations based on t = As1 + s2, where A and t are parts of the public key. This case assumes knowledge of the least significant bits of t, t0. The second variant uses lattice reduction to derive s1 without the knowledge of t0. However, it needs a larger portion of s1 to be recovered by power analysis. We evaluate both variants on an ARM Cortex-M4 implementation of Dilithium-2. The experiments show that the attack assuming the knowledge of t0 can recover s1 from a single trace captured from a different from profiling device with a non-negligible probability.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
International Association for Cryptologic Research, 2024
Keywords
Dilithium, post-quantum digital signature, key recovery attack, side-channel attack, lattice reduction
National Category
Engineering and Technology
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-371699 (URN)10.62056/a0fh89n4e (DOI)
Note

QC 20251019

Available from: 2025-10-16 Created: 2025-10-16 Last updated: 2025-10-19Bibliographically approved

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