CCRI:Planning-C:SCA-in-Cloud: Infrastructure to Perform Side-Channel Attacks on Cryptographic Algorithms

This project focuses on planning activities leading to the development of a remotely accessible research infrastructure for performing and analyzing side-channel attacks on cryptographic algorithms (SCA-in-Cloud). When commissioned, this infrastructure is envisioned serve as an open access platform for researchers to design and evaluate innovative SCA methods (e.g., timing, power-based) implemented in both hardware and software.

The availability of this open infrastructure will also encourage more secure development practices and open new community-based research avenues to develop SCA-resistant implementations of next generation cryptographic algorithms. A key objective of this planning grant is to coalesce different groups (cryptography theorists, software engineers, embedded and real-time engineers, and cybersecurity practitioners) into a more visible community and solicit collaborators and feedback that is necessary to create this critical infrastructure.

There are two major tasks in this planning project. The first major task includes a series of outreach activities for soliciting the interest, requirements, and the scope of the SCA-in-Cloud infrastructure. Outreach strategies include surveys and workshops at conferences for direct interactions and community building with all other cryptography active and aspirational research groups, and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).

Further, an advisory committee will be formed for the initial determination of hardware/software platforms and known side-channel attacks included in the infrastructure. The second major task is to develop a prototype of the infrastructure, which will include FPGA and embedded development kits.

This project will consistently integrate the project development with undergraduate and graduate research and education, and expose students early on to recent advances in security, software design, and hardware design. The proposed infrastructure will be used by the Embedded System Security course at the University of Arkansas for performing power-based side-channel attacks.

Other institutions will be contacted to take advantage of this SCA-in-Cloud infrastructure. Women and underrepresented students will be encouraged to join the research team. Further, tutorials and demos will be organized at related conferences, such as FPGA, HOST, and Crypto for introducing the infrastructure to the research community.

The website, https://sca-in-cloud.uark.edu, is dedicated to the portal to the infrastructure and the project repository for all data, code, results, and reports. All users will access the infrastructure through this website to perform side-channel attacks on cryptographic algorithms and obtain the results. The website and all project files will be stored on a desktop computer maintained by the research team for 3-years.

In addition, a GitHub project will host all data, code results, and reports as a permanent solution, and will be linked to from the above URL.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.