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How Secure Are FPGAs in Cryptographic Applications?

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Field Programmable Logic and Application (FPL 2003)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNCS,volume 2778))

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Abstract

The use of FPGAs for cryptographic applications is highly attractive for a variety of reasons but at the same time there are many open issues related to the general security of FPGAs. This contribution attempts to provide a state-of-the-art description of this topic. First, the advantages of reconfigurable hardware for cryptographic applications are listed. Second, potential security problems of FPGAs are described in detail, followed by a proposal of a some countermeasure. Third, a list of open research problems is provided. Even though there have been many contributions dealing with the algorithmic aspects of cryptographic schemes implemented on FPGAs, this contribution appears to be the first comprehensive treatment of system and security aspects.

This research was partially sponsored by the German Federal Office for Information Security (BSI).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Chair for Communication Security (COSY), Horst Görtz Institute for IT Security, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Germany

    Thomas Wollinger & Christof Paar

Authors
  1. Thomas Wollinger
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  2. Christof Paar
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Imperial College London, Exhibition Road, SW7 2BT, London, UK

    Peter Y. K. Cheung

  2. Department of Electrical & Electronic Engineering, Imperial College London, Exhibition Road, SW7 2BT, London, UK

    George A. Constantinides

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Wollinger, T., Paar, C. (2003). How Secure Are FPGAs in Cryptographic Applications?. In: Y. K. Cheung, P., Constantinides, G.A. (eds) Field Programmable Logic and Application. FPL 2003. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 2778. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-45234-8_10

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-45234-8_10

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-40822-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-45234-8

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