Security simulation against side-channel attacks on Advanced Encryption Standard circuits based on equivalent circuit model

An equivalent circuit model was applied to a cryptographic module to simulate the resistance of the module against side-channel attacks. The cryptographic module involved two fiel programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), on which an Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) circuit was implemented on one of them. The equivalent circuit model proposed in the previous literature was improved in terms of the accuracy of model parameters. Resistance against side-channel attacks was simulated in a more practical configuratio with the improved model than that in the previous work. Resistance was simulated with random plaintexts (input values) to the cryptographic circuit, whereas a biased plaintext set was used to simplify simulation. The simulation was carried out with two decoupling configuration for the power distribution network of the FPGA core that the AES circuit was implemented in. The results obtained from simulation confirme that the equivalent circuit model allowed side-channel resistance to be precisely predicted.