SRAM based Gaussian noise generation for post quantum cryptography.

Area of Science:

• Cryptography
• Computer Engineering
• Information Security

Background:

• Conventional public-key cryptography (RSA, ECC) is vulnerable to quantum attacks.
• Post-quantum cryptography (PQC) relies on Gaussian noise, but traditional generators are computationally expensive.
• Lightweight and embedded systems require efficient noise generation for PQC.

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose a novel hardware-based Gaussian noise generator for PQC.
• To address the computational and memory limitations of existing noise generation methods.
• To provide a practical solution for securing lightweight and embedded systems against quantum threats.

Main Methods:

• Utilizes the inherent randomness of static random-access memory (SRAM) power-on states.
• Aggregates SRAM start-up bits and computes their Hamming weight.
• Generates Gaussian-distributed integers without analog components, large lookup tables, or external random number generators.

Main Results:

• The proposed generator closely matches Gaussian distribution across various group sizes and environmental conditions.
• Statistical tests (Shapiro-Wilk, Kolmogorov-Smirnov) show >95% pass rates; Kullback-Leibler divergence is <0.01.
• Gaussian properties are maintained across a wide thermal range (-20 to 100 °C).

Conclusions:

• The SRAM-based generator offers a practical, lightweight, and thermally robust solution for PQC.
• It is particularly suitable for lattice- and code-based cryptographic schemes.
• This approach enhances the security of embedded systems in the post-quantum era.