Make It Easy! Timing Leakage Analysis on Cryptographic Chips Based on Horizontal Leakage
Guangze Hong, An Wang, Congming Wei, Yaoling Ding, Shaofei Sun, Jingqi Zhang, Liehuang Zhu · IEEE Transactions on Computer-Aided Design of Integrated Circuits and Systems · 2025
Timing analysis presents a significant threat to cryptographic modules. However, traditional timing leakage analysis has notable limitations, especially when precise execution times cannot be obtained. In this article, we propose a novel timing leakage analysis method that leverages horizontal leakage in the power/electromagnetic channel by detecting the trace length of encryption processes under varying inputs. To demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach, we conducted systematic experimental evaluations across a range of cryptographic devices. In comparison to timing leakage analysis based on plaintext-ciphertext correlation, our method offers higher accuracy at lower testing costs and exhibits improved resistance to vertical noise.