The absence of an algorithm that effectively monitors the deep learning models used in side-channel attacks increases the difficulty of a security evaluation. If an attack is unsuccessful, that could be due to multiple reasons. It can be that we are indeed dealing with a resistant implementation, but it is possible that the deep learning model used is faulty. In this contribution, we formalize two conditions,persistenceandpatience, for a deep learning model to be optimal and we propose an early stopping algorithm that reliably recognizes the model's optimal state during training. The novelty of our solution is in an efficient implementation of guessing entropy estimation as a success metric used to measure the strength of a side-channel adversary. As a result, the model which uses our strategy for learning converges with fewer traces than other known methods.

This paper introduces a deep learning modular network for side-channel analysis. Our approach features a deep learning architecture with the capability to exchange parts (modules) with other neural networks. We aim to introduce reusable trained modules into side-channel analysis instead of building architectures from scratch for each evaluation, reducing the body of work. Our experiments demonstrate that our architecture feasibly assesses a side-channel evaluation, suggesting that learning transferability is possible using the architecture we propose in this paper.

Evaluating the side-channel resistance in practice is a problematic and arduous process. Current certification schemes require to attack the device under test with an ever-growing number of techniques to validate its security. In addition, the success or failure of these techniques strongly depends on the individual implementing them due to the fallible and human intrinsic nature of several steps of this path. To alleviate this problem, we propose a battery of automated (Estimation of Distribution Algorihm(EDA)-based) attacks as a side-channel analysis robustness assessment of an embedded device. To prove our approach, we conduct realistic experiments on two different devices, creating a new dataset (AES_RA) as a part of our contribution. Furthermore, in this context of automation, we propose several novel improvements over current EDA-based attacks, as follows: 1) optimization of the search process by employing two proposed initialization techniques; 2) improvement and analysis of the generalization of the obtained templates; 3) acceleration of the search process by combining EDAs with Principal Component Analysis (PCA). The last contribution also serves as an alternative way of selecting optimal principal components automatically. We support our claims with experiments on AES_RA and a public dataset (ASCAD), showing how our, although fully automated, approach can straightforwardly provide state-of-the-art results.

In the field of side-channel analysis, profiled attacks are one of the most powerful types of attacks. Nevertheless, major issues with profiled attacks are in sensitivity to noise and the high-dimensional nature of the signals used for training, generating a less efficient classifier to conduct the attack phase. Consequently, evaluating the security of cryptographic implementation in hardware devices like IoT becomes more complex as side-channel analysis evaluation easily falls into false-positive results. This paper assesses the efficacy of applying a feature reduction process to deal with high-dimensional signals. We propose a practical procedure to conduct feature reduction using autoencoders for profiled side-channel leakage evaluations. Two autoencoder architectures are compared while performing feature reduction showing that our proposed architecture keeps most of the relevant information. Our proposal is tested on the ASCAD random key database with a high desynchronization value and produced results that outperform other state-of-the-art techniques. The guessing entropy value converges to 1 after around 500 leakage traces.

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Performing a comprehensive side-channel analysis evaluation of small embedded devices is a process known for its variability and complexity. In real-world experimental setups, the results are largely influenced by a huge amount of parameters, some of which are not easily adjusted without trial and error and are heavily relying on the experience of professional security analysts. In this article, we advocate the usage of an existing statistical methodology called Six Sigma (6 ) for side-channel analysis optimization. This well-known methodology is commonly used in other industrial fields, such as production and quality engineering, to reduce the variability of industrial processes. We propose a customized Six Sigma methodology, which allows even a less-experienced security analysis to select optimal values for the different variables that are critical for the side-channel analysis procedure. Moreover, we show how our methodology helps in improving different phases in the side-channel analysis process.

The wide availability of power distribution cables provides an interesting no-new-wires communication channel. However, its electrical characteristics make it a harsh environment for the data transmission purpose and prevent the deployment of services with high reliability requirements. This paper proposes and implements an OSI-Layer2 network coding-based cooperative scheme with the aim of improving communication reliability in indoor narrowband powerline channels. The proposed scheme uses random linear network coding with a sliding window and relaying. We use network coding to replace the retransmissions triggered by legacy subsequent repeat request (ARQ) schemes. We evaluate the performance of our approach in terms of throughput and delay. Regarding the throughput achieved in harsh environments, we show that our scheme often more than doubles the throughput of existing legacy ARQ schemes. At the same time, and even under the large variation of traffic characteristics, it is shown that the delay is likely to be upper bounded by a few seconds, a bound that cannot be guaranteed in other existing transmission techniques.

In this paper, we describe an innovative queue management mechanism in order to achieve an optimal use of shared communication resources. The target scenario contemplates different data flows sharing the same network resources at the same time. The main challenge over this scenario is to achieve the required QoS (Quality of Service) to redistribute real-time and high constraints services. The described queue management algorithm, proposes an innovative queue utilization method based on the combination of the data flows to be redistributed, providing a more efficient use of the network resources, and inducing important improvements in the caused delay and jitter. Present work describes the design of a mechanism based on Network Coding that achieves new QoS up-bound limits and reduces the queue occupancy that cannot be achieved with store-and-forward mechanisms. Finally, we describe the very promising preliminary results obtained by the simulation of a still open study, and discover a new potential future research field.