RLM: a new mask countermeasure to resist HO-CPA for GIFT

As a further development of the side channel technique, the security of crypto-chips has received extensive attention from researchers. A mask scheme based on a random number generator is usually used to protect crypto-chips, but it will result in extra memory and time consumption. How to balance the security of crypto-chips and the memory consumption has always been the research focus. In this paper, we use a random number generator to design a random loop mask scheme (RLM) for GIFT algorithm. The binary value of a random number is used to set the position and value of masks. In addition, the rotating S-box of the RSM scheme is combined with the small generation mask of a fixed mask scheme to make the RLM more secure. The experimental results show that the RLM scheme protects the intermediate values from being leaked. Compared to other common schemes, our RLM scheme could resist not only correlation power analysis (CPA) attacks but also higher-order correlation power analysis (HO-CP A) attacks. In addition, the RAM consumption was 49% less than that of the global mask scheme.