Security-oriented error-detecting codes are used to detect fault injection attacks on cryptographic devices. These codes are usually designed for uniformly distributed codewords, i.e., for codes that have maximal entropy. In practice, the codewords are not uniformly distributed; thus, their entropy is smaller and their efficiency in detecting attacks degrades. This paper analyzes the relation between the entropy of a code and its worst error masking probability. Based on this relation, a method for determining the rate and structure of a code that provides the required error masking probability is presented.
Index Terms-Binary codes, nonlinear codes, error detection, fault injection attacks, information security.Mark Karpovsky (M'80-SM'84-F'91-LF'11) has been a Professor of computer engineering and the Director of the Reliable He has been a Consultant of IBM, Digital Equipment Corporation, Honeywell Corporation, AT&T, Raytheon, and several companies in Europe. He has published more than 200 papers and several books in the areas of logical design, testing and diagnosis of computer systems, fault-tolerant computing, error-correcting codes, and computer communication networks. He conducts research in the areas of design, testing, and diagnosis of computer networks, message routing for multiprocessors and computer communication networks, and design of cryptographic devices resistant to side channel attacks.