Fault-Tolerant Systems

CHAPTER 9 Fault Detection in Cryptographic Systems

Cryptographic algorithms are being applied in an increasing number of devices to satisfy their high security requirements. Many of these devices require high-speed operation and include specialized hardware encryption and/or decryption circuits for the selected cryptographic algorithm. A unique characteristic of these circuits is their very high sensitivity to faults. Unlike ordinary arithmetic/logic circuits such as adders and multipliers, even a single data bit fault in an encryption or decryption circuit will, in most cases, spread quickly and result in a totally scrambled output (an almost random pattern). There is, therefore, a need to prevent such faults or, at the minimum, be able to ...