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Simple Power Analysis Attack on SQIsign

delete2026-01-01
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PRE
AI
A
Anisha Mukherjee *
M
Maciej Czuprynko
D
David Jacquemin
P
Péter Kutas
S
Sujoy Sinha Roy
DOI:10.1007/978-3-031-97260-7_12delete
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Abstract

Abstract

En 中文
The isogeny-based post-quantum digital signature algorithm SQIsign offers the most compact key and signature sizes among all candidates in the ongoing NIST call for additional post-quantum signature algorithms. To the best of our knowledge, we present the first Simple Power Analysis (SPA) side-channel attack on SQIsign, demonstrating its feasibility for key recovery. Our attack specifically targets secret-dependent computations within Cornacchia's algorithm, a fundamental component of SQIsign's quaternion module. At the core of this algorithm, a secret-derived yet ephemeral exponent is used in a modular exponentiation subroutine. By performing SPA on the modular exponentiation, we successfully recover this ephemeral exponent. We then develop a method to show how this leaked exponent can be exploited to ultimately reconstruct the secret signing key of SQIsign. Our findings emphasize the critical need for side-channel-resistant implementations of SQIsign, highlighting previously unexplored vulnerabilities in its design.
Keywords:
Isogeny
SQIsign
Side-Channel Analysis
PQC

Journal

P
PROGRESS IN CRYPTOLOGY-AFRICACRYPT 2025
IF:
0
Papers:
20
Citations:
0

Organization

G
graz university of technology
Scholars:
769
Papers: 351
Citations: 0
E
Eotvos Lorand University
Scholars:
7.5K
Papers: 6.3K
Citations: 84