skip to main content
US FlagAn official website of the United States government
dot gov icon
Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.
https lock icon
Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( lock ) or https:// means you've safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Explore Research Products in the PAR
It may take a few hours for recently added research products to appear in PAR search results.


Title: Designing a Block Cipher in Galois Extension Fields for IoT Security
This paper focuses on a block cipher adaptation of the Galois Extension Fields (GEF) combination technique for PRNGs and targets application in the Internet of Things (IoT) space, an area where the combination technique was concluded as a quality stream cipher. Electronic Codebook (ECB) and Cipher Feedback (CFB) variations of the cryptographic algorithm are discussed. Both modes offer computationally efficient, scalable cryptographic algorithms for use over a simple combination technique like XOR. The cryptographic algorithm relies on the use of quality PRNGs, but adds an additional layer of security while preserving maximal entropy and near-uniform distributions. The use of matrices with entries drawn from a Galois field extends this technique to block size chunks of plaintext, increasing diffusion, while only requiring linear operations that are quick to perform. The process of calculating the inverse differs only in using the modular inverse of the determinant, but this can be expedited by a look-up table. We validate this GEF block cipher with the NIST test suite. Additional statistical tests indicate the condensed plaintext results in a near-uniform distributed ciphertext across the entire field. The block cipher implemented on an MSP430 offers a faster, more power-efficient alternative to the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) system. This cryptosystem is a secure, scalable option for IoT devices that must be mindful of time and power consumption.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
1946493
PAR ID:
10324941
Author(s) / Creator(s):
;
Date Published:
Journal Name:
IoT
Volume:
2
Issue:
4
ISSN:
2624-831X
Page Range / eLocation ID:
669 to 687
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
More Like this
  1. ; ; (, IEEE design test)
    Bhasin, Shivam; Chattopadhyay, Anupam; Güneysu, Tim; Bhunia, Swarup (Ed.)
    Digital signature algorithms are the foundation of many secure communication protocols, including those used in Internet of Things (IoT) applications. While the current generation of signature schemes is secure against classical attacks, they are potentially vulnerable to attacks using quantum computers. Because of this threat, multiple new schemes have been developed and evaluated in recent years. From among these schemes, the National Institute of Standards and Technology standardized two and selected additional three for near-term standardization. For use in IoT, these schemes must be sufficiently efficient in terms of their public-key and signature sizes and the timing of major operations. In this paper, we analyze the choice between two primary schemes considered for extensive use in IoT, CRYSTALS-Dilithium and FALCON, from the point of view of developing efficient hardware accelerators supporting cryptographic operations performed by IoT clients and servers. 
    more » « less
  2. ; ; (, Government Microcircuit Applications & Critical Technology Conference,)
    Hardware security is a critical challenge for various emerging applications in the massive deployment of IoT devices due to lack of computing resources. In this paper, an energy- efficient AC computing methodology is proposed to facilitate lightweight encryption in RF powered devices such as RFIDs. Contrary to conventional methods that rely on rectification and regulation, the wirelessly harvested AC signal is directly used to drive the data processing circuity by leveraging charge- recycling mechanism. To quantify the advantages of the proposed framework, SIMON block cipher, a lightweight cryptography al- gorithm, is implemented in both AC computing and conventional methods. The simulation results demonstrate that the proposed methodology achieves up to 34 times reduction in power and enables a relatively powerful encryption core to be embedded within resource-constrained IoT devices. 
    more » « less
  3. ; ; ; ; (, Cryptography)
    Authenticated ciphers, which combine the cryptographic services of confidentiality, integrity, and authentication into one algorithmic construct, can potentially provide improved security and efficiencies in the processing of sensitive data. However, they are vulnerable to side-channel attacks such as differential power analysis (DPA). Although the Test Vector Leakage Assessment (TVLA) methodology has been used to confirm improved resistance of block ciphers to DPA after application of countermeasures, extension of TVLA to authenticated ciphers is non-trivial, since authenticated ciphers have expanded input and output requirements, complex interfaces, and long test vectors which include protocol necessary to describe authenticated cipher operations. In this research, we upgrade the FOBOS test architecture with capability to perform TVLA on authenticated ciphers. We show that FPGA implementations of the CAESAR Round 3 candidates ACORN, Ascon, CLOC (with AES and TWINE primitives), SILC (with AES, PRESENT, and LED primitives), JAMBU (with AES and SIMON primitives), and Ketje Jr.; as well as AES-GCM, are vulnerable to 1st order DPA. We then use threshold implementations to protect the above cipher implementations against 1st order DPA, and verify the effectiveness of countermeasures using the TVLA methodology. Finally, we compare the unprotected and protected cipher implementations in terms of area, performance (maximum frequency and throughput), throughput-to-area (TP/A) ratio, power, and energy per bit (E/bit). Our results show that ACORN consumes the lowest number of resources, has the highest TP/A ratio, and is the most energy-efficient of all DPA-resistant implementations. However, Ketje Jr. has the highest throughput. 
    more » « less
  4. ; ; ; ; (, Future Internet)
    Randomness is integral to computer security, influencing fields such as cryptography and machine learning. In the context of cybersecurity, particularly for the Internet of Things (IoT), high levels of randomness are essential to secure cryptographic protocols. Quantum computing introduces significant risks to traditional encryption methods. To address these challenges, we propose investigating a quantum-safe solution for IoT-trusted computing. Specifically, we implement the first lightweight, practical integration of a quantum random number generator (QRNG) with a software-based trusted platform module (TPM) to create a deployable quantum trusted platform module (QTPM) prototype for IoT systems to improve cryptographic capabilities. The proposed quantum entropy as a service (QEaaS) framework further extends quantum entropy access to legacy and resource-constrained devices. Through the evaluation, we compare the performance of QRNG with traditional Pseudo-random Number Generators (PRNGs), demonstrating the effectiveness of the quantum TPM. Our paper highlights the transformative potential of integrating quantum technology to bolster IoT security. 
    more » « less
  5. ; ; ; ; (, 2018 IEEE International Symposium on Hardware Oriented Security and Trust (HOST))
    Authenticated ciphers are vulnerable to side-channel attacks, including differential power analysis (DPA). Test Vector Leakage Assessment (TVLA) using Welch's t-test has been used to verify improved resistance of block ciphers to DPA after application of countermeasures. However, extension of this methodology to authenticated ciphers is non-trivial, since this requires additional input and output conditions, complex interfaces, and long test vectors interlaced with protocol necessary to describe authenticated cipher operations. In this research we augment an existing side-channel analysis architecture (FOBOS) with TVLA for authenticated ciphers. We use this capability to show that implementations in the Spartan-6 FPGA of the CAESAR Round 3 candidates ACORN, ASCON, CLOC (AES and TWINE), SILC (AES, PRESENT, and LED), JAMBU (AES and SIMON), and Ketje Jr., as well as AES-GCM, are potentially vulnerable to 1st order DPA. We then implement versions of the above ciphers, protected against 1st order DPA, using threshold implementations. TVLA is used to verify improved resistance to 1st order DPA of the protected cipher implementations. Finally, we benchmark unprotected and protected cipher implementations in the Spartan-6 FPGA, and compare the costs of 1st order DPA protection in terms of area, frequency, throughput, throughput-to-area (TP/A) ratio, power, and energy per bit. Our results show that ACORN is the most energy efficient, has the lowest area (in LUTs), and has the highest TP/A ratio of DPA-resistant implementations. However, Ketje Jr. has the highest throughput. 
    more » « less
  • Citation Formats
  • MLA
  • APA
  • Chicago
  • BibTeX
  • Save / Share this Record
  • Send to Email