Fault Attacks on XEX Mode with Application to Certain Authenticated Encryption Modes

The XOR-Encrypt-XOR (XEX) block cipher mode was introduced by Rogaway in 2004. XEX mode uses nonce-based secret masks (L) that are distinct for each message. The existence of secret masks in XEX mode prevents the application of conventional fault attack techniques, such as differential fault analysis. This work investigates other types of fault attacks against XEX mode that either eliminate the effect of the secret masks or retrieve their values. Either of these outcomes enables existing fault attack techniques to then be applied to recover the secret key. To estimate the success rate and feasibility, we ran simulations for ciphertext-only fault attacks against 128-bit AES in XEX mode. The paper discusses also the relevance of the proposed fault attacks to certain authenticated encryption modes based on XEX, such as OCB2, OTR, COPA, SHELL and ElmD. Finally, we suggest effective countermeasures to provide resistance to these fault attacks.