Comprehensive analysis of software countermeasures against fault attacks

Nikolaus Theißing, Dominik Merli, Michael Smola, Frederic Stumpf, Georg Sigl

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

21 Scopus citations

Abstract

Fault tolerant software against fault attacks constitutes an important class of countermeasures for embedded systems. In this work, we implemented and systematically analyzed a comprehensive set of 19 different strategies for software countermeasures with respect to protection effectiveness as well as time and memory efficiency. We evaluated the performance and security of all implementations by fault injections into a microcontroller simulator based on an ARM Cortex-M3. Our results show that some rather simple countermeasures outperform other more sophisticated methods due to their low memory and/or performance overhead. Further, combinations of countermeasures show strong characteristics and can lead to a high fault coverage, while keeping additional resources at a minimum. The results obtained in this study provide developers of secure software for embedded systems with a solid basis to decide on the right type of fault attack countermeasure for their application.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationProceedings - Design, Automation and Test in Europe, DATE 2013
Pages404-409
Number of pages6
StatePublished - 2013
Event16th Design, Automation and Test in Europe Conference and Exhibition, DATE 2013 - Grenoble, France
Duration: 18 Mar 201322 Mar 2013

Publication series

NameProceedings -Design, Automation and Test in Europe, DATE
ISSN (Print)1530-1591

Conference

Conference16th Design, Automation and Test in Europe Conference and Exhibition, DATE 2013
Country/TerritoryFrance
CityGrenoble
Period18/03/1322/03/13

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