Cryptology ePrint Archive: Report 2006/482

Countermeasures for the Simple Branch Prediction Analysis

Giovanni Agosta and Gerardo Pelosi

Abstract: Branch Prediction Analysis has been proposed as an attack method to obtain key bits from a cryptographic application. In this report, we put forth several solutions to avoid or prevent this attack. The reported countermeasures require only minimal hardware support that is commonly available in modern superscalar processors.

Category / Keywords: implementation / Branch Prediction Analysis, countermeasures, side channel analysis

Date: received 21 Dec 2006

Contact author: pelosi at elet polimi it

Available format(s): Postscript (PS) | Compressed Postscript (PS.GZ) | PDF | BibTeX Citation

Note: This report synthetizes a series of observations on "On the Power of Simple Branch Prediction Analysis" by Aciicmez, Koc and Seifert.

Version: 20061224:131115 (All versions of this report)

Short URL: ia.cr/2006/482

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