Download Electromagnetic Fault Injection using Transient Pulse Injections

CHAPTER 8. FINAL CONCLUSIONS
to perhaps expand those to cover EM-FI related attacks as well as the existing fault injection
techniques already covered.
Type
Type A
Languagea / OSb
C code
Certificationscd
-
Type B
JC 2.1.1, GP 2.0.1
-
Type C
JC 2.1.1, GP 2.0.1
-
Type D
JC 2.2.1, GP 2.1.1
CC EAL 4+, FIPS 140-2 Level 3
Type E
JC 2.2.1, GP 2.1.1
CC EAL 4+
Type F
JC 2.2.2, GP 2.1.1
CC EAL 5+
Type G
JC 2.2.2, GP 2.1.1
CC EAL 5+
Type H
JC 2.2.1, GP 2.1
CC EAL 5+, FIPS 140-2 Level 3
Type I
JC 2.2.2, GP 2.1
CC EAL 5+, FIPS 140-2 Level 3
Type J
JC 2.2.1, GP 2.1.1
CC EAL 5+, FIPS 140-2 Level 3
Sensitive to EM-FI
Yes
No
Yes
No
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
a JC:
JavaCard version
GlobalPlatform version
c CC EAL: Common Criteria Evaluation Assurance Level
d FIPS: Federal Information Processing Standard
b GP:
Table 8.1: The final results for the different types of smart cards tested using EM-FI, copied from
Table 6.3 in Section 6.4.
This also ties in to the last question we answered in this thesis, namely Question 3, the advantages
and disadvantages of EM-FI versus Optical-FI. The extensive list of pros and cons, as listed in
Chapter 7 gives a good overview of both techniques. When we couple that with what we learned
from the rest of this thesis, we can only come to one conclusion: Until chip manufacturers start
implementing countermeasures against EM-FI, making it significantly more expensive and difficult
to perform glitches using that technique, EM-FI is superior to all other fault injection techniques
currently available. Especially so for cards that already have existing countermeasures against
other forms of SCA and FI.
So putting it all together, we can finally answer our original research question in a simple to the
point manner:
How does EM-FI compare to other fault injection methods, such as Optical-FI, with
respect to testing techniques and sensitivity to countermeasures?
To put it bluntly, EM-FI is better than the alternatives such as Laser-FI. It is simpler, significantly
less expensive, and a lot less sensitive to the existing countermeasures on most of today’s smart
cards and embedded devices.
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Electromagnetic Fault Injection using Transient Pulse Injections