Influence of Synthesis Parameters on Vulnerability to Side-Channel Attacks

Every cryptographic design has to be secure to fulfil its function properly. As side-channel attacks are becoming easier and easier to perform, designers of secure circuits must pay attention to implementing various countermeasures against these attacks. However, in some cases, their hard work can be thwarted if automatic optimizations invalidate the defences. This work explores the effect of synthesis parameters settings on the vulnerability of the cryptographic designs implemented in FPGAs to side-channel attacks. It focuses on the implementation of Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) with multiple countermeasures against attacks and evaluates the effect of parameters settings on security using Test Vector Leakage Assessment based on Welch's t-test.