Finding the key in the haystack

While smartcards and other tamper resistant devices usually implement countermeasures to complicate this kind of attack, most consumer hardware isn't DPA-safe. DPA will be explained by example in this talk: A non-hardened, but conventional AES implementation running on a popular AVR microcontroller will be attacked. Real-world power data will be used for analysis.

After explaining the basic idea and the way DPA works, the workflow will be described in detail along with hardware/software requirements and the measurement setup. The measurement process will be explained as well. Prior to analyzing the recorded data, necessary theoretical foundations will be shown without going too much into mathematical details.

Common challenges one might encounter while mounting a DPA-attack will be presented as well as suitable approaches to cope with them. It's the intention of this talk to show that all one needs to conduct a DPA is a half-decent digital storage oscilloscope (DSO) and a bit of electronics & software knowledge.