On Comparing Side-channel Properties of AES and ChaCha20 on Microcontrollers
Zakaria Najm (Nanyang Technological University, TU Delft - Cyber Security)
Dirmanto Jap (Nanyang Technological University)
Bernhard Jungk (Independent researcher)
Stjepan Picek (TU Delft - Cyber Security)
Shivam Bhasin (Nanyang Technological University)
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Abstract
Side-channel attacks are a real threat to many secure systems. In this paper, we consider two ciphers used in the automotive industry – AES and ChaCha20 and we evaluate their resistance against side-channel attacks. In particular, the focus is laid upon the main non-linear component in these ciphers. Owing to the design of ChaCha20, it offers natural timing side-channel resistance and thus is suitable for affected applications. However, attacks exploiting the power side-channel are somewhat more difficult on ChaCha20 as compared to AES, but the overhead to protect ChaCha20 against such attack is considerably higher.