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US 9,425,959 B1Granted
Security variable scrambling
AssigneeAltera Corporation
InventorBruce B. Pedersen
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Methods and systems are provided for securing an integrated circuit device against various security attacks, such as side-channel attacks. By limiting the number of different challenge vectors that can be combined with a critical variable of an encryption operation, it becomes more difficult to create enough side channel measurements to successfully perform statistical side-channel analysis.
Claims19
A method for processing data based on a cryptographic operation, the method comprising:
- scrambling, using scrambling circuitry, a secret value of a critical variable with a first element of a challenge vector, to generate a first scrambled value of the critical variable, wherein the critical variable is used in the cryptographic operation;
- scrambling the first scrambled value of the critical variable with a second element of the challenge vector to generate a second scrambled value of the critical variable;
- and
- encrypting the data based on the second scrambled value of the critical variable.
1 more element
A system for processing data based on a cryptographic operation, the circuit comprising:
- scrambling circuitry configured for:
- scrambling a secret value of a critical variable with a first element of a challenge vector, to generate a first scrambled value of the critical variable, wherein the critical variable is used in the cryptographic operation, and
- scrambling the first scrambled value of the critical variable with a second element of the challenge vector to generate a second scrambled value of the critical variable;
- and
- encryption circuitry for encrypting the data based on the second scrambled value of the critical variable.
2 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.