Can Code Polymorphism Limit Information Leakage?

In addition to its usual complexity assumptions, cryptography silently assumes that information can be physically protected in a single location. As one can easily imagine, real-life devices are not ideal and information may leak through different physical side-channels. It is a known fact that information leakage is a function of both the executed code F and its input x. In this work we explore the use of polymorphic code as a way of resisting side channel attacks. We present experimental results with procedural and functional languages. In each case we rewrite the protected code code F-i before its execution. The outcome is a genealogy of programs F-0, F-1, . . . such that for all inputs x and for all indexes i not equal j double right arrow F-i(x) = F-j(x) and F-i not equal F-j. This is shown to increase resistance to side channel attacks.