Proposal of a New Physical Authentication Method Based on Lightweight Cryptography Ascon with Improved Availability and Security

We propose a new physical authentication method with improved availability and security. The technique utilizes the lightweight cryptography Ascon and solves the problems of conventional authentication methods by using side-channel information. Conventional side-channel authentication is a physical authentication method that utilizes physical information leaked from cryptography devices and is resistant to relay attacks. However, issues remain in terms of availability and security. Our proposed method introduces Ascon, cryptography with authentication, and guarantees confidentiality, integrity, and authenticity with a simple authentication algorithm that does not require a challenge-response scheme. In addition, taking advantage of Ascon's features, a side-channel attack countermeasure called Leveled implementation could be applied to reduce the risk of recovering the pre-shared key. The proposed authentication system is well-suited in environments that require high security, such as IoT.