Security of implementations of Post-Quantum Cryptography algorithms

Action launched by the ECCC to incorporate ‘expected impact’ language set out in the ‘Destination – Increased Cybersecurity’ section of this work programme part

Destination - Increased Cybersecurity

The strategic plan 2025-2027 identifies the following impact: "Increased cybersecurity and a more secure online environment by developing and using effectively EU and Member States’ capabilities in digital technologies supporting protection of data and networks aspiring to technological sovereignty in this field, while respecting privacy and other fundamental rights; this should contribute to secure services, processes and products, as well as to robust digital infrastructures capable to resist and counter cyber-attacks and hybrid threats".

Under this Work Programme, the Commission intends to conclude a contribution agreement entrusting the European Cybersecurity Competence Centre (ECCC) with the implementation of call topics related to Increased Cybersecurity. Please refer to "Indirectly managed action by the ECCC" in the section "Other Actions" of this Work Programme part – including the Appendix providing the call specifications for information purposes. Those specifications incorporate ‘expected impacts’ set out below.

Expected impacts:

• Support the EU’s technological capabilities by investing in cybersecurity research and innovation to further strengthen its leadership, strategic autonomy, digital sovereignty and resilience;
• Help protect its infrastructures and improve its ability to prevent, protect against, respond to, resist, mitigate, absorb, accommodate and recover from cyber and hybrid incidents, especially given the current context of geopolitical change;
• Support European competitiveness in cybersecurity and European strategic autonomy, by protecting EU products and digital supply chains, as well as critical EU services and infrastructures (both physical and digital) to ensure their robustness and continuity in the face of severe disruptions;
• Encourage the development of the European Cybersecurity Competence Community;
• Particular attention will be given to SMEs, who play a crucial role in the cybersecurity ecosystem and in overall EU digital single market competitiveness, by promoting security and privacy ‘by design’ in existing and emerging technologies.

Projects’ results are expected to contribute to some or all of the following outcomes:

• Design and implementations of Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC) algorithms that are resistant to side-channel and fault attacks;
• Optimized countermeasures taking into account a balanced trade-off between security, performance, and costs;
• Recommendations on implementing countermeasures for a broad range of attacks, also identifying the available and necessary hardware;
• Analysis of new attacks or combinations of attacks, also eventually enhanced by AI, applicable to real-world conditions.
• Design of automated security evaluations for PQC implementations.

The security of the implementations of PQC algorithms is vital for maintaining the confidentiality, integrity, authenticity and availability of digital information and communications in the face of implementation attacks, such as, for example, side-channel attacks using information from timing, power consumption, electromagnetic radiation, fault attacks disturbing the secure of operation of the device and their combination. Such attacks, eventually also enhanced by the use of deep learning, constitute significant threats to both (embedded and regular) software and hardware implementations. In various application areas such as IoT, cloud-based applications, automotive, measures to prevent such attacks currently lead to substantial resource overhead due to the complexity of the algorithms, and the security remains unclear given the limited exploration of different attack surfaces. Countermeasures, to the extent that they are available, may have significant impact on run-time and memory consumption. Resistance in PQC implementations to implementation attacks is an increasingly common concern among customers, especially when exploring the right balance between security and performance.

Evaluating the security of PQC algorithm implementations against side-channel and fault attacks is crucial, given the proven vulnerabilities. Various countermeasures, such as masking, shuffling, randomized clocking, random delay insertion, constant weight encoding, code polymorphism, control-flow integrity and re-computation of critical operations can be employed to mitigate these attacks. Synergies between specific countermeasures and the design of cryptographic systems are available for pre-quantum cryptography but require investigation for post-quantum cryptography.

Proposals are welcome on developing solutions that protect against such implementation attacks, at reasonable costs and minimizing the loss of performance while maintaining the required security, as well as on the analysis of new attacks or combinations of attacks, also powered by the use of AI, for security-by-design approaches when designing Post Quantum Cryptographic systems. Activities can also lead to the development of testing methodologies and frameworks for automated security evaluations for correctness and resistance to remote side-channel attacks for regular software and for correctness and resistance to a broad range of implementation attacks for embedded software and hardware.