Side-Channel Attack: Power Analysis Attacks

Threat actors can analyze power consumption on-board the spacecraft to exfiltrate information. In power analysis attacks, the threat actor studies the power consumption of devices, especially cryptographic modules. Power analysis attacks require close proximity to a sensor node, such that a threat actor can measure the power consumption of the sensor node. There are two types of power analysis, namely simple power analysis (SPA) and differential power analysis (DPA). In differential power analysis, the threat actor studies the power analysis and is able to apply mathematical and statistical principles to determine the intermediate values.

ID: CM0059
Sub-technique of:  EXF-0002
Related Aerospace Threat IDs:  SV-AC-5 | SV-CF-1 | SV-CF-2
Related MITRE ATT&CK TTPs: 
Related ESA SPACE-SHIELD TTPs:  T2035
Tactic:
Created: 2022/10/19
Last Modified: 2023/08/08

Countermeasures

ID Name Description NIST Rev5 D3FEND ISO 27001
CM0057 Tamper Resistant Body Using a tamper resistant body can increase the one-time cost of the sensor node but will allow the node to conserve the power usage when compared with other countermeasures. PE-19 PE-19(1) PL-8 PL-8(1) SA-3 SA-4(5) SA-4(9) SA-8 D3-PH D3-RFS A.7.5 A.7.8 A.8.12 A.5.8 A.5.2 A.5.8 A.8.25 A.8.31 A.8.27 A.8.28
CM0058 Power Randomization Power randomization is a technique in which a hardware module is built into the chip that adds noise to the power consumption. This countermeasure is simple and easy to implement but is not energy efficient and could be impactful for size, weight, and power which is limited on spacecraft as it adds to the fabrication cost of the device. PE-19 PE-19(1) D3-PH D3-RFS A.7.5 A.7.8 A.8.12
CM0059 Power Consumption Obfuscation Design hardware circuits or perform obfuscation in general that mask the changes in power consumption to increase the cost/difficulty of a power analysis attack. This will increase the cost of manufacturing sensor nodes. PE-19 PE-19(1) D3-PH D3-RFS A.7.5 A.7.8 A.8.12