General Extensions and Improvements of Algebraic Persistent Fault Analysis

Algebraic persistent fault analysis (APFA) combines algebraic analysis with persistent fault analysis, providing a novel approach for examining block cipher implementation security. Since its introduction, APFA has attracted considerable attention. Traditionally, APFA has assumed that fault injectio...

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Main Authors: Hanbing Li, Kexin Qiao, Ye Xu, Changhai Ou, An Wang
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2025-05-01
Series:Cryptography
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Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2410-387X/9/2/30
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author Hanbing Li
Kexin Qiao
Ye Xu
Changhai Ou
An Wang
author_facet Hanbing Li
Kexin Qiao
Ye Xu
Changhai Ou
An Wang
author_sort Hanbing Li
collection DOAJ
description Algebraic persistent fault analysis (APFA) combines algebraic analysis with persistent fault analysis, providing a novel approach for examining block cipher implementation security. Since its introduction, APFA has attracted considerable attention. Traditionally, APFA has assumed that fault injection occurs solely within the S-box during the encryption process. Yet, algorithms like PRESENT and AES also utilize S-boxes in the key scheduling phase, sharing the same S-box implementation as encryption. This presents a previously unaddressed challenge for APFA. In this work, we extend APFA’s fault injection and analysis capabilities to encompass the key scheduling stage, validating our approach on PRESENT. Our experimental findings indicate that APFA continues to be a viable approach. However, due to faults arising during the key scheduling process, the number of feasible candidate keys does not converge. To address this challenge, we expanded the depth of our fault analysis without increasing the number of faulty ciphertexts, effectively narrowing the key search space to near-uniqueness. By employing a compact S-box modeling approach, we were able to construct more concise algebraic equations with solving efficiency improvements ranging from tens to hundreds of times for PRESENT, SKINNY and CRAFT block ciphers. The efficiency gains became even more pronounced as the depth of the fault leakage increased, demonstrating the robustness and scalability of our approach.
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spelling doaj-art-f14ece147f5e4eae8af1eedb176c626a2025-08-20T02:24:29ZengMDPI AGCryptography2410-387X2025-05-01923010.3390/cryptography9020030General Extensions and Improvements of Algebraic Persistent Fault AnalysisHanbing Li0Kexin Qiao1Ye Xu2Changhai Ou3An Wang4School of Cyberspace Science and Technology, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing 100081, ChinaSchool of Cyberspace Science and Technology, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing 100081, ChinaNo. 208 Research Institute of China Ordnance Industries, Beijing 102202, ChinaSchool of Cyber Science and Engineering, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072, ChinaSchool of Cyberspace Science and Technology, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing 100081, ChinaAlgebraic persistent fault analysis (APFA) combines algebraic analysis with persistent fault analysis, providing a novel approach for examining block cipher implementation security. Since its introduction, APFA has attracted considerable attention. Traditionally, APFA has assumed that fault injection occurs solely within the S-box during the encryption process. Yet, algorithms like PRESENT and AES also utilize S-boxes in the key scheduling phase, sharing the same S-box implementation as encryption. This presents a previously unaddressed challenge for APFA. In this work, we extend APFA’s fault injection and analysis capabilities to encompass the key scheduling stage, validating our approach on PRESENT. Our experimental findings indicate that APFA continues to be a viable approach. However, due to faults arising during the key scheduling process, the number of feasible candidate keys does not converge. To address this challenge, we expanded the depth of our fault analysis without increasing the number of faulty ciphertexts, effectively narrowing the key search space to near-uniqueness. By employing a compact S-box modeling approach, we were able to construct more concise algebraic equations with solving efficiency improvements ranging from tens to hundreds of times for PRESENT, SKINNY and CRAFT block ciphers. The efficiency gains became even more pronounced as the depth of the fault leakage increased, demonstrating the robustness and scalability of our approach.https://www.mdpi.com/2410-387X/9/2/30persistent faultfault attackS-boxalgebraic representationPRESENTSKINNY
spellingShingle Hanbing Li
Kexin Qiao
Ye Xu
Changhai Ou
An Wang
General Extensions and Improvements of Algebraic Persistent Fault Analysis
Cryptography
persistent fault
fault attack
S-box
algebraic representation
PRESENT
SKINNY
title General Extensions and Improvements of Algebraic Persistent Fault Analysis
title_full General Extensions and Improvements of Algebraic Persistent Fault Analysis
title_fullStr General Extensions and Improvements of Algebraic Persistent Fault Analysis
title_full_unstemmed General Extensions and Improvements of Algebraic Persistent Fault Analysis
title_short General Extensions and Improvements of Algebraic Persistent Fault Analysis
title_sort general extensions and improvements of algebraic persistent fault analysis
topic persistent fault
fault attack
S-box
algebraic representation
PRESENT
SKINNY
url https://www.mdpi.com/2410-387X/9/2/30
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AT changhaiou generalextensionsandimprovementsofalgebraicpersistentfaultanalysis
AT anwang generalextensionsandimprovementsofalgebraicpersistentfaultanalysis