Analysis and Protection of Lightweight Cryptographic Algorithms

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Gregor Leander
• Subject Area: Security and Dependability, Operating-, Communication- and Distributed Systems
• Term: from 2020 to 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 432878529

The Internet of Things (IoT) represents the next phase of the evolution of the Internet towards a network that integrates the physical world into the virtual world. In the near future, the vast majority of devices connected to the Internet will not be classical computers like PCs, laptops, or smart phones, but miniature sensor nodes, actuators, and various other kinds of "smart" devices with computation and communication capabilities. This evolution will create a strong demand for lightweight cryptographic algorithms that are suitable for devices with extreme resource constraints such as RFID tags. Recently, the US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) announced an initiative to standardize lightweight hash functions and authenticated encryption schemes in an open process with public evaluation. The mission of the APLICA project is to contribute to the evaluation of the more than 50 candidate algorithms submitted to the NIST by analyzing their theoretical and practical security properties. More concretely, APLICA will contribute to the development of new cryptanalytic techniques (including new software tools for cryptanalysis) that can be applied to lightweight authenticated encryption algorithms and hash functions, and to the design and implementation of new countermeasures against side-channel attacks, in particular differential power analysis, that are suitable for resource-constrained IoT devices. Both topics have the potential to create significant real-world impact since the NIST-standardized algorithms will likely get deployed in billions of devices.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: Luxembourg
• Cooperation Partner: Professor Dr. Alex Biryukov, Ph.D.