Abstract
In this paper, genetic programming is used as an alternative means to automatically generate secure and minimal hardware designs of public-key cryptosystems such as the RSA cryptosystem. We evolve optimal hardware circuits for modular exponentiation, which is a cornerstone operation in many public-key cryptographic system. The evolved circuits minimize both space (i.e. required gate number) and time (i.e. encryption and decryption time). The evolved designs are shielded against side-channel leakage and hence secure. The structure of the cryptographic circuit is random and so the private key cannot be deduced using known attacks. We compare our results against existing well-known designs, which were produced by human designers based on the binary method.
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Nadia Nedjah, Ph.D.: She is an associate professor in the Department of Electronics Engineering and Telecommunications at the Faculty of Engineering, State University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Her research interests include functional programming, embedded systems and reconfigurable hardware design as well as cryptography. Nedjah received her Ph.D. in Computation from the University of Manchester — Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST), England, her M.S.c. in System Engineering and Computation from the University of Annaba, Algeria and her Engineerind degree in Computer Science also from the University of Annaba, Algeria.
Luiza de Macedo Mourelle, Ph.D.: She is an associate professor in the Department of System Engineering and Computation at the Faculty of Engineering, State University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Her research interests include computer architecture, embedded systems design, hardware/software codesign and reconfigurable hardware. She received her Ph.D. in Computation from the University of Manchester — Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST), England, her M.S.c. in System Engineering and Computation from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), Brazil and her Engineering degree in Electronics also from UFRJ, Brazil.
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Nedjah, N., de Macedo Mourelle, L. Secure evolvable hardware for public-key cryptosystems. New Gener Comput 23, 259–275 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03037659
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03037659