Investigation of Near-Field Pulsed EMI at IC Level

Abstract : This article describes the use of a near-field electromagnetic pulse EMP injection technique in order to perform a hardware cryptanalysis of the AES algorithm. This characterization technique is based on the fact that conductors, such as the rails of a Power Distribution Network PDN which is one of the primary EMI risk factors, act as antennas for the radiated EMP energy. This energy induces high electrical currents in the PDN responsible for the violation of the integrated circuit's timing constraints. This modification of the chip's behavior is then exploited in order to recover the AES key by using cryptanalysis techniques based on Differential Fault Analysis (DFA).