b'Improving CryptographicImproving computer system resistance to side channel attack by modifying Algorithm Resistance to Sidemathematic primitives used in cipher implementation.Channel Attack C ryptographic ciphers are commonly used to secure various aspects of computer systems. The security provided by ciphers typically comes from the requirement that a user have knowledge or possession of a key to interact with that system (e.g., reading a message or running a program). Using cryptographic ciphers is particularly important in environments where physical protection of computing equipment is difficult or unfeasible, such as with the TOTAL APPROVED AMOUNT:Internet of Things or cyber-physical systems. Traditional cryptographic ciphers can be $105,000 over 1 year too computationally expensive to run on resource-constrained computing systems, necessitating lightweight ciphers designed to operate within such environments.PROJECT NUMBER: 20A1052-028 However, even ciphers with ideal performance may still be susceptible to attack after their implementation in a multiple of mediums (e.g., processor, computer, electro-PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR:mechanical system, or simulator). Observations of the side effects of computation, Robert Erbes such as power usage, radio emissions, heat generation, or instruction timing, can CO-INVESTIGATORS: be used to infer otherwise secret information about the data being processed. Liljana Babinkostova,This observation and inference are often referred to as a side channel attack. Boise State University Cryptographic implementations deployed on resource-constrained devices are Mike Borowczak,especially vulnerable to these types of attacks.University of Wyoming This project tested susceptibility to power-based side-channel attacks on a common platform of several National Institute of Standards and Technology lightweight cipher candidates, evaluated existing published metrics for predicting susceptibility to attack, and implemented candidate ciphers using different algorithmic variants. The team discovered that all but one of the existing published metrics used to evaluate components of substitution-permutation network-based cryptographic ciphers do not predict resistance to side channel attack.TALENT PIPELINE:William Unger, student at Boise State UniversityPRESENTATION:Unger, W., L. Babinkostova, M. Borowczak, and R. Erbes, Side-channel leakage assessment metrics: A case study of GIFT block ciphers, 2021 IEEE Computer Society Annual Symposium on Very Large-Scale Integration (July 2021).The ChipWhisperer open-source system hardware used in this research (OFlynn and Chen, International Workshop on Constructive Side-Channel Analysis and Secure Design, 2014). The correlation power analysis attacks and data analysis were performed 126 using Python.'