Reliable Code-Based Post-Quantum Cryptographic Algorithms through Fault Detection on FPGA

Code-based cryptography is a promising post-quantum cryptographic solution against attacks enabled by classical and quantum computers. The Niederreiter cryptosystem is a well-known code-based cryptographic algorithm that has been traditionally scrutinized due to its key size and its computational requirements. However, with the advent of quantum computers, the Niederreiter cryptosystem is becoming more popular as it is thought that code-based cryptography is quantum resistant. Nevertheless, security does not mean reliability, and the finite field operational blocks used in some code-based algorithms are vulnerable to fault injection. This paper derives error detection mechanisms based on normal and interleaved parity for code-based cryptosystems. Moreover, such techniques are applied to the Key Generator of the Niederreiter cryptosystem and implemented on Xilinx field-programmable gate array (FPGA) family Kintex UltraScale+ (device xcku5p-ffvd900-1-i). This is done to assess the overheads and the decrease in performance when the derived fault detection techniques are included to the original designs.