Papers for
hardware security teams
Papers whose findings have a practical use for this group, as judged from the abstract. Open a paper to read what it means in practice.
Families of special Boolean functions help build secure cryptography
Explicit Constructions of Maximum-Cardinality Families of Plateaued Functions with Pairwise Disjoint Walsh Supports
Abstract: Families of plateaued Boolean functions with pairwise disjoint Walsh supports are useful in secondary constructions of cryptographic Boolean functions. Of particular interest are maximum-cardinality families whose members admit no nonzero linear structures. To the best of our knowledge, the previously known general construction attaining both properties is spectral (Hodžić et al., IEEE Trans. Inf. Theory 65(9): 5865--5879, 2019). In that work, explicit algebraic normal forms are not generally provided, and no general method is established for prescribing a common algebraic degree for all family members. In this paper, we present two new explicit algebraic constructions within a unified framework, one based on linear functions and the other on partially linear functions with bent components. Let $p\geq 2$ and $q\geq 0$ satisfy $q<2^p-p-1$, and set $m=p+q$. Both constructions yield maximum-cardinality families of $2^{q+1}$ $(q+1)$-plateaued Boolean functions with pairwise disjoint Walsh supports. No member admits a nonzero linear structure, and every member has an explicit generalized Maiorana--McFarland representation. The first construction produces functions in $m+p+1$ variables and realizes any prescribed common algebraic degree $3\leq d\leq p+1$, provided that $q<\sum_{i=2}^{d-1}\binom{p}{i}$; its maximum attainable degree $p+1$ is optimal. The second construction produces functions in $n+p+1$ variables, where $n>m$ and $n-m$ is even, and realizes any prescribed common algebraic degree $3\leq d\leq p+(n-m)/2$, provided that $q<\sum_{i=2}^{\min\{d-1,p\}}\binom{p}{i}$; its maximum attainable degree $p+(n-m)/2$ is next-to-optimal.
Generalizing and characterizing shift-invariant maps for lightweight cryptography
A generalization of the map $χ$
Abstract: The mapping $ χ_n:\mathbb{F}_2^n \to \mathbb{F}_2^n$ defined by $y=χ_n(x)$ with $y_i = x_i + x_{i+1}x_{i+2} + x_{i+2}$, where the indices are computed modulo $n$, has been widely studied for its application in lightweight cryptography. In this paper, we generalize this mapping and completely characterize all these shift-invariant permutations of algebraic degree $2$.
Generative model improves hardware portability of deep learning side-channel analysis
s-MDM: Generative Virtualization of Multi-Device Hardware Variations for Portable DL-SCA
Abstract: Deep Learning-based Side-Channel Analysis (DL-SCA) frequently suffers from catastrophic performance degradation across unseen hardware due to printed circuit board routing differences, silicon process variations, and measurement noise shifts. This poster presents the Synthetic Multiple Device Model (s-MDM), a zero-target-trace generative framework designed to improve cross-device portability. s-MDM combines a structured cVAE generator, a Walsh-Hadamard leakage anchor, continuous style modulation, and decoupled leakage-style--domain critics to synthesize virtual source-device profiles offline. Benchmarked on 32-bit side-channel traces (AES_PTv2), s-MDM maps a precise operational boundary: while physical MDM remains superior on identical electrical clones (D4), s-MDM achieves consistently low key rank on the layout/acquisition-shifted Pinata target, where physical baselines are unstable or misaligned.
Resynthesis domain learning improves circuit graph neural network adaptation
ReDIL-GNN: Resynthesis Domain Incremental Learning for Circuit Graph Neural Networks
Abstract: Logic resynthesis preserves circuit functionality while changing gate vocabulary, topology, and structural statistics, creating domain shift for circuit graph neural networks (GNNs) without changing task labels. To study this setting, we introduce ReDIL-GNN, a resynthesis domain-incremental learning framework that adapts a fixed prediction or representation head as new synthesis styles arrive and evaluates retention on all previously observed domains. Because not every shift should be adapted blindly, ReDIL-GNN further introduces the Resynthesis Adaptability Index (RAI), a pre-adaptation score that combines adaptation need, source-equivalence recoverability, structural coverage, and update compatibility. We evaluate supervised hardware-security tasks and representation-learning models using task-native metrics for classifiers and source-equivalence retrieval metrics for embedding models, comparing naive fine-tuning with LwF, Online EWC, MAS, ER, A-GEM, DER++, ER+LwF, and equivalence-guided replay. Across the studied pipelines, RAI separates unsupported shifts from promising updates, ranging from 0.001 for a structurally uncovered GNN-RE ABC-rewrite shift to 0.824 for the best original-only GNN-RE adaptation case. In practice, ReDIL-GNN turns resynthesis-aware circuit learning into a deployment control loop: RAI screens each new synthesis flow before update, guiding whether to reuse the current model, apply retention-aware adaptation, or defer adaptation until the shift is better supported.