📋 Tender Overview
Connecting Symmetric And Asymmetric Cryptography For Leakage And Faults
A Unified Approach To Symmetric And Asymmetric Cryptography For Leakage And Faultssymmetric And Asymmetric Cryptography Are Crucial In Ensuring Secure Communication. They Have Distinct Features And Use Different Algebraic Structures, Leading To Separate Development Paths For Their Design And Implementation Against Side-Channel And Fault Attacks. Funded By The European Research Council, The Bridge Project Aims To Unify The Study Approach To Symmetric And Asymmetric Cryptography. This Integrated Approach Should Be Highly Beneficial For Post-Quantum Asymmetric Encryption Schemes That Include Symmetric Components. Researchers Will Implement Levelled Protection From Symmetric Cryptography Into New Post-Quantum Asymmetric Schemes And Use Larger Fields And More Complex Algebraic Structures From Asymmetric Cryptography To Improve Symmetric Schemes. Furthermore, They Will Exploit Hard Physical Learning Problems As New Building Blocks For Both Types Of Primitives.
Funded Under
European Research Council (Erc)
Total Cost
€ 2 499 560,00
Eu Contribution
€ 2 499 560,00
Coordinated By
Universite Catholique De Louvain
Belgium
Objective
Symmetric & asymmetric cryptography offer the basic functionalities needed to communicate securely over a channel. Due to their different features and the different algebraic structures they exploit, the interaction between the design of these primitives and the security of their implementation against side-channel & fault attacks so far followed somewhat separated paths. Based on the observation that (i) many emerging challenges for the implementation security of symmetric & asymmetric primitives share similarities and would highly benefit from a more connected approach, and (ii) this is especially true when considering post-quantum asymmetric encryption schemes that include symmetric components and for which current designs are extremely challenging to protect against side-channel & faults attacks, the BRIDGE project aims to develop a unified treatment of symmetric & asymmetric cryptography by leveraging three innovative movements. First, we aim to export the concept of levelled implementation (where different parts of a primitive are protected with countermeasures of varying cost) from symmetric cryptography towards new post-quantum asymmetric schemes that inherently take implementation security as a design criteria. Second, we aim to export the use of larger (possibly prime) fields and more complex algebraic structures used in asymmetric cryptography to deliver advanced functionalities towards new symmetric schemes that guarantee security against side-channel & fault attacks in low-noise contexts that raise fundamental challenges for existing countermeasures. Third, we aim to exploit hard physical learning problems as radically new building blocks applicable to both types of primitives. By combining these movements, we aim to identify disrup
