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docs/_static/ectester_ches25.pdf

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docs/papers.rst

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@@ -75,3 +75,74 @@ private and public inputs. We evaluate them on two simulation levels and study t
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effect of noise on their performance. Our methods are able to 1) reverse-engineer
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the scalar multiplication algorithm completely and 2) infer significant information
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about the coordinate system and addition formulas used in a target implementation
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ECTester: Reverse-engineering side-channel countermeasures of ECC implementations
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=================================================================================
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Vojtech Suchanek, Jan Jancar, Jan Kvapil, Petr Svenda, Lukasz Chmielewski
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`CHES 2025, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia <https://ches.iacr.org/2025/>`_
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.. grid::
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:margin: 2 0 0 2
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:padding: 2 0 0 2
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.. grid-item::
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:columns: auto
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.. button-link:: _static/ectester_ches25.pdf
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:color: secondary
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:fas:`file-alt;fa-fw` Preprint
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.. grid-item::
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:columns: auto
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.. button-link:: https://github.com/crocs-muni/ECTester
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:color: secondary
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:fas:`file-zipper;fa-fw` Artifact
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.. dropdown:: BibTeX
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:color: secondary
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:name: pyecsca-bibtex
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:class-container: bibtex-dropdown
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.. code-block:: Bibtex
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@InProceedings{2025-ches-jancar,
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title = {ECTester: Reverse-engineering side-channel countermeasures of ECC implementations},
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author = {Vojtech Suchanek and Jan Jancar and Jan Kvapil and Petr Svenda and Lukasz Chmielewski},
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booktitle = {IACR Transactions on Cryptographic Hardware and Embedded Systems},
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publisher = {Ruhr-University of Bochum},
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year = {2025}
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}
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Abstract
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--------
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Developers implementing elliptic curve cryptography (ECC) face a wide
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range of implementation choices created by decades of research into elliptic curves.
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The literature on elliptic curves offers a plethora of curve models, scalar multipliers,
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and addition formulas, but this comes with the price of enabling attacks to also
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use the rich structure of these techniques. Navigating through this area is not
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an easy task and developers often obscure their choices, especially in black-box
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hardware implementations. Since side-channel attackers rely on the knowledge of the
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implementation details, reverse engineering becomes a crucial part of attacks.
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This work presents **ECTester** – a tool for testing black-box ECC implementations.
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Through various test suites, ECTester observes the behavior of the target implementation
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against known attacks but also non-standard inputs and elliptic curve parameters.
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We analyze popular ECC libraries and smartcards and show that some libraries and
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most smartcards do not check the order of the input points and improperly handle
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the infinity point. Based on these observations, we design new techniques for
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reverse-engineering scalar randomization countermeasures that are able to distinguish
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between group scalar randomization, additive, multiplicative or Euclidean splitting.
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Our techniques do not require side-channel measurements; they only require the
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ability to set custom domain parameters, and are able to extract not only the size but
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also the exact value of the random mask used. Using the techniques, we successfully
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reverse-engineered the countermeasures on 13 cryptographic smartcards from 5 major
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manufacturers – all but one we tested on. Finally, we discuss what mitigations can
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be applied to prevent such reverse engineering, and whether it is possible at all.

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