Side-channel resistant multiplicatively masked encryption engine with zero-value attack detection

Abstract

In one embodiment, a method comprises: combining, in a first adder circuit of a cryptographic engine, a round key with masked plaintext to generate an additively masked input; converting, in a first converter of the cryptographic engine, the additively masked input to a multiplicatively masked input; and performing, in a substitution box circuit of the cryptographic engine, a non-linear inverse operation on the multiplicatively masked input when the multiplicatively masked input is non-zero, and performing the non-linear inverse operation on a random non-zero value when the multiplicatively masked input is zero. Other embodiments are described and claimed.