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Side Channel Considerations for SHA-512

Technical Report ·
DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/1647526· OSTI ID:1647526
 [1]
  1. Sandia National Laboratories (SNL), Albuquerque, NM, and Livermore, CA (United States)

We consider a theoretical side-channel attack on SHA-512; the attack should easily generalize to other algorithms in the SHA-2 family. Rather than looking at a side-channel attack on an HMAC, which has been done in various papers, we assume that the targeted device is applying the hash function as a pseudo-random function (prf) in order to generate a secret key from a secret seed, as recommended by NIST. The analyst uses side-channel information to try to recover the secret seed. We use entropy/information theory to show how one might judge whether or not a side-channel attack might be possible and/or feasible, and we show how the design of the implementation can affect the feasibility of an attack.

Research Organization:
Sandia National Laboratories (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)
DOE Contract Number:
AC04-94AL85000
OSTI ID:
1647526
Report Number(s):
SAND--2020-8190R; 689814
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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