{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,9]],"date-time":"2026-05-09T14:43:09Z","timestamp":1778337789634,"version":"3.51.4"},"reference-count":35,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"1","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2025,3,16]],"date-time":"2025-03-16T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1742083200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"RONAQCI","award":["101091562"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["101091562"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Cryptography"],"abstract":"<jats:p>CRYSTALS-Kyber has been standardized as a general public-key post-quantum algorithm under the name of ML-KEM after NIST released its first three final post-quantum standards in August 2024. The resilience of post-quantum cryptography to side-channel attacks has been an important research endeavor, and there have been many attacks designed, including basic Correlation Power Analysis. This paper adapts existing Correlation Power Analysis attacks to the most recent ARM Cortex M4 optimized implementation that uses Plantard arithmetic. It also demonstrates an improved version of a CPA that results in a 50% speedup compared to the original attack. Data are gathered and the mathematical model is tested using a ChipWhisperer-Lite board.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/cryptography9010019","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,3,17]],"date-time":"2025-03-17T04:29:28Z","timestamp":1742185768000},"page":"19","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":3,"title":["Improved Correlation Power Analysis Attack on the Latest Cortex M4 Kyber Implementation"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"9","author":[{"given":"Costin","family":"Ghiban","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Computer Science Department, Faculty of Automatic Control and Computer Science, National University of Science and Technology POLITEHNICA Bucharest, 060042 Bucharest, Romania"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Marios Omar","family":"Choudary","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Computer Science Department, Faculty of Automatic Control and Computer Science, National University of Science and Technology POLITEHNICA Bucharest, 060042 Bucharest, Romania"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2025,3,16]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","unstructured":"Shor, P. (1994, January 20\u201322). Algorithms for quantum computation: Discrete logarithms and factoring. Proceedings of the Proceedings 35th Annual Symposium on Foundations of Computer Science, Santa Fe, NM, USA."},{"key":"ref_2","unstructured":"NIST (2025, March 10). Post-Quantum Cryptography, Available online: https:\/\/csrc.nist.gov\/projects\/post-quantum-cryptography."},{"key":"ref_3","unstructured":"Neve, M., and Tiri, K. (2025, March 10). On the Complexity of Side-Channel Attacks on AES-256\u2014Methodology and Quantitative Results on Cache Attacks. Cryptology ePrint Archive. Available online: https:\/\/eprint.iacr.org\/2007\/318.pdf."},{"key":"ref_4","unstructured":"(2024). Module-Lattice-Based Key-Encapsulation Mechanism Standard (Standard No. FIPS 203)."},{"key":"ref_5","unstructured":"Kannwischer, M.J., Petri, R., Rijneveld, J., Schwabe, P., and Stoffelen, K. (2025, March 10). PQM4: Post-Quantum Crypto Library for the ARM Cortex-M4. Available online: https:\/\/github.com\/mupq\/pqm4."},{"key":"ref_6","unstructured":"NewAE Technology Inc. (2025, March 10). ChipWhisperer. Available online: https:\/\/github.com\/newaetech\/chipwhisperer-jupyter\/tree\/master."},{"key":"ref_7","unstructured":"Karlov, A., and de Guertechin, N.L. (2025, March 10). Power Analysis Attack on Kyber. Cryptology ePrint Archive. Available online: https:\/\/eprint.iacr.org\/2021\/1311."},{"key":"ref_8","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"10","DOI":"10.1016\/j.vlsi.2023.02.012","article-title":"Chosen ciphertext correlation power analysis on Kyber","volume":"91","author":"Yang","year":"2023","journal-title":"Integration"},{"key":"ref_9","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"120","DOI":"10.1145\/359340.359342","article-title":"A method for obtaining digital signatures and public-key cryptosystems","volume":"21","author":"Rivest","year":"1978","journal-title":"Commun. ACM"},{"key":"ref_10","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"644","DOI":"10.1109\/TIT.1976.1055638","article-title":"New directions in cryptography","volume":"22","author":"Diffie","year":"1976","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Inf. Theory"},{"key":"ref_11","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Gratzer, G.A. (2011). Lattice Theory: Foundation, Springer.","DOI":"10.1007\/978-3-0348-0018-1"},{"key":"ref_12","unstructured":"Ajtai, M. (1998, January 24\u201326). The shortest vector problem in L2 is NP-hard for randomized reductions. Proceedings of the Thirtieth Annual ACM Symposium on Theory of Computing, Dallas, TX, USA."},{"key":"ref_13","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Ajtai, M. (1996, January 22\u201324). Generating hard instances of lattice problems. Proceedings of the Twenty-Eighth Annual ACM Symposium on Theory of Computing, Philadelphia, PA, USA.","DOI":"10.1145\/237814.237838"},{"key":"ref_14","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1","DOI":"10.1145\/1568318.1568324","article-title":"On lattices, learning with errors, random linear codes, and cryptography","volume":"56","author":"Regev","year":"2009","journal-title":"J. ACM (JACM)"},{"key":"ref_15","first-page":"11","article-title":"The learning with errors problem","volume":"7","author":"Regev","year":"2010","journal-title":"Invit. Surv. CCC"},{"key":"ref_16","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Bos, J., Ducas, L., Kiltz, E., Lepoint, T., Lyubashevsky, V., Schanck, J.M., Schwabe, P., Seiler, G., and Stehle, D. (2018, January 24\u201326). CRYSTALS\u2014Kyber: A CCA-Secure Module-Lattice-Based KEM. Proceedings of the 2018 IEEE European Symposium on Security and Privacy (EuroS&P), London, UK.","DOI":"10.1109\/EuroSP.2018.00032"},{"key":"ref_17","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Fujisaki, E., and Okamoto, T. (1999). Secure integration of asymmetric and symmetric encryption schemes. Advances in Cryptology\u2014CRYPTO\u201999, Proceedings of the 19th Annual International Cryptology Conference, Santa Barbara, CA, USA, 15\u201319 August 1999, Springer.","DOI":"10.1007\/3-540-48405-1_34"},{"key":"ref_18","unstructured":"Shoup, V. (2025, March 10). A Proposal for an ISO Standard for Public Key Encryption. Cryptology ePrint Archive, Paper 2001\/112. Available online: https:\/\/eprint.iacr.org\/2001\/112."},{"key":"ref_19","unstructured":"(2015). SHA-3 Standard: Permutation-Based Hash and Extendable-Output Functions (Standard No. FIPS PUB 202)."},{"key":"ref_20","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Kocher, P., Jaffe, J., and Jun, B. (1999). Differential power analysis. Advances in Cryptology\u2014CRYPTO\u201999, Proceedings of the 19th Annual International Cryptology Conference, Santa Barbara, CA, USA, 15\u201319 August 1999, Springer. Proceedings 19.","DOI":"10.1007\/3-540-48405-1_25"},{"key":"ref_21","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Brier, E., Clavier, C., and Olivier, F. (2004). Correlation power analysis with a leakage model. Cryptographic Hardware and Embedded Systems\u2014CHES 2004, Proceedings of the 6th International Workshop, Cambridge, MA, USA, 11\u201313 August 2004, Springer. Proceedings 6.","DOI":"10.1007\/978-3-540-28632-5_2"},{"key":"ref_22","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1506","DOI":"10.1109\/TETC.2021.3073475","article-title":"Efficient word size modular arithmetic","volume":"9","author":"Plantard","year":"2021","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Emerg. Top. Comput."},{"key":"ref_23","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"614","DOI":"10.46586\/tches.v2022.i4.614-636","article-title":"Improved Plantard arithmetic for lattice-based cryptography","volume":"2022","author":"Huang","year":"2022","journal-title":"IACR Trans. Cryptogr. Hardw. Embed. Syst."},{"key":"ref_24","unstructured":"Kuo, Y.T., and Takayasu, A. (December, January 29). A lattice attack on crystals-Kyber with correlation power analysis. Proceedings of the 26th International Conference on Information Security and Cryptology, Seoul, Republic of Korea."},{"key":"ref_25","first-page":"200","article-title":"Improved Power Analysis on CRYSTALS-Kyber","volume":"23","author":"Kuo","year":"2024","journal-title":"Power"},{"key":"ref_26","unstructured":"Wang, K., Xu, D., and Tian, J. (2024). An Improved Two-Step Attack on Kyber. arXiv."},{"key":"ref_27","first-page":"296","article-title":"Curse of re-encryption: A generic power\/em analysis on post-quantum kems","volume":"2022","author":"Ueno","year":"2022","journal-title":"Iacr Trans. Cryptogr. Hardw. Embed. Syst."},{"key":"ref_28","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Hoang, A.T., Kennaway, M., Pham, D.T., Mai, T.S., Khalid, A., Rafferty, C., and O\u2019Neill, M. (2024, January 3\u20135). Deep Learning Enhanced Side Channel Analysis on CRYSTALS-Kyber. Proceedings of the 2024 25th International Symposium on Quality Electronic Design (ISQED), San Francisco, CA, USA.","DOI":"10.1109\/ISQED60706.2024.10528674"},{"key":"ref_29","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Ravi, P., Jap, D., Bhasin, S., and Chattopadhyay, A. (November, January 28). Machine Learning Based Blind Side-Channel Attacks on PQC-Based KEMs\u2014A Case Study of Kyber KEM. Proceedings of the 2023 IEEE\/ACM International Conference on Computer Aided Design (ICCAD), San Francisco, CA, USA.","DOI":"10.1109\/ICCAD57390.2023.10323721"},{"key":"ref_30","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Mu, J., Zhao, Y., Wang, Z., Ye, J., Fan, J., Chen, S., Li, H., Li, X., and Cao, Y. (2022, January 17\u201320). A Voltage Template Attack on the Modular Polynomial Subtraction in Kyber. Proceedings of the 2022 27th Asia and South Pacific Design Automation Conference (ASP-DAC), Taipei, Taiwan.","DOI":"10.1109\/ASP-DAC52403.2022.9712513"},{"key":"ref_31","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Yang, Y., Huang, J., Wang, Z., Ye, J., Sun, Z., Fan, J., Chen, S., Li, H., Li, X., and Cao, Y. (2023, January 14\u201317). A Template Attack on Reduction Without Reference Device on Kyber. Proceedings of the 2023 IEEE 32nd Asian Test Symposium (ATS), Beijing, China.","DOI":"10.1109\/ATS59501.2023.10318019"},{"key":"ref_32","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Guo, Q., and Johansson, T. (2021). Faster dual lattice attacks for solving LWE with applications to CRYSTALS. Advances in Cryptology\u2014ASIACRYPT 2021, Proceedings of the 27th International Conference on the Theory and Application of Cryptology and Information Security, Singapore, 6\u201310 December 2021, Springer. Proceedings, Part IV 27.","DOI":"10.1007\/978-3-030-92068-5_2"},{"key":"ref_33","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Kannwischer, M.J., Schwabe, P., Stebila, D., and Wiggers, T. (2022, January 6\u201310). Improving Software Quality in Cryptography Standardization Projects. Proceedings of the IEEE European Symposium on Security and Privacy (EuroS&PW), Genoa, Italy.","DOI":"10.1109\/EuroSPW55150.2022.00010"},{"key":"ref_34","unstructured":"Goodwill, G., Jun, B., Jaffe, J., and Rohatgi, P. (2011, January 25\u201327). A testing methodology for side-channel resistance validation. Proceedings of the NIST Non-Invasive Attack Testing Workshop, Nara, Japan."},{"key":"ref_35","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"27","DOI":"10.1145\/3569420","article-title":"Side-channel analysis of lattice-based post-quantum cryptography: Exploiting polynomial multiplication","volume":"23","author":"Mujdei","year":"2024","journal-title":"ACM Trans. Embed. Comput. Syst."}],"container-title":["Cryptography"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2410-387X\/9\/1\/19\/pdf","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,9]],"date-time":"2025-10-09T16:54:33Z","timestamp":1760028873000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2410-387X\/9\/1\/19"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2025,3,16]]},"references-count":35,"journal-issue":{"issue":"1","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2025,3]]}},"alternative-id":["cryptography9010019"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/cryptography9010019","relation":{},"ISSN":["2410-387X"],"issn-type":[{"value":"2410-387X","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2025,3,16]]}}}