SPA resistant elliptic curve cryptosystem using addition chains

Abstract

There has been a lot of interest in recent years in the problems faced by cryptosystems due to side channel attacks. Algorithms for elliptic curve point scalar multiplication such as the double-and-add method are prone to such attacks. By making use of special addition chains, it is possible to implement a Simple Power Analysis (SPA) resistant cryptosystem. In this paper, a reconfigurable architecture for a cryptographic processor is presented. A SPA resistant algorithm for point multiplication is implemented and is shown to be faster than the double-and-add method. Post place and route results for the processor are given. © 2007 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.