Hiding Side-channel Leakage through Hardware Randomization: a Comprehensive Overview

This paper gives (i) an overview of the reconfiguration capabilities of modern hardware devices and (ii) a summary and comparison of hardware architectures that use random reconfiguration as a countermeasure against side-channel attacks. We categorize the architectures according to their suitability for specic hardware platforms. Further, we compare the reconfiguration methods and the attacks that the countermeasures protect against. Although the presented randomization countermeasures can usually be applied to a broad range of algorithms, evaluation results are presented for specific cryptographic algorithms. In most cases, randomization countermeasures can be combined with other countermeasures that are tailored to specific algorithms.