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| CHES | |
|---|---|
| Name | CHES |
| Abbreviation | CHES |
| Discipline | Cryptography, Hardware Security |
| First | 1989 |
| Frequency | Annual |
| Country | International |
CHES is an international forum focused on cryptographic hardware and embedded systems, convening researchers, engineers, and vendors to advance practical security for devices and chips. It brings together contributions from academia, industry, and standards bodies on topics such as side-channel analysis, fault injection, secure processors, and post-quantum implementations. The conference and related outputs influence design decisions at semiconductor firms, standards organizations, and national laboratories worldwide.
CHES serves as a nexus for work on hardware-oriented cryptography involving algorithms, implementations, and evaluation methods connected to microcontrollers, smartcards, integrated circuits, and system-on-chip designs. Regular participants include researchers from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of Cambridge, Technische Universität Darmstadt, and corporate teams from Intel, ARM, NXP Semiconductors, Infineon Technologies, and Qualcomm. Themes commonly intersect with research presented at Crypto, Eurocrypt, IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy, and ACM CCS. Proceedings are often cited alongside standards from National Institute of Standards and Technology and guidance from European Union Agency for Cybersecurity.
The event traces roots to late-20th-century interest in securing smartcards and embedded cryptographic modules used in infrastructures tied to Visa, Mastercard, and national identity projects such as those in Estonia and India. Early work responded to attacks demonstrated on platforms like the EMV payment standard and research by groups at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology and Bell Labs. Over time, CHES expanded as side-channel attacks including power analysis and electromagnetic analysis gained prominence through influential papers by authors associated with Paul Kocher, Tadayoshi Kohno, and teams at University of California, San Diego. The conference matured into a premier venue alongside workshops like FSE and collaborations with initiatives such as PQCrypto.
Research presented at CHES underpins implementations of primitives including Advanced Encryption Standard, Elliptic Curve Cryptography, and candidates from NIST Post-Quantum Cryptography Standardization. Hardware countermeasures discussed inform techniques like masking, hiding, and redundancy used in secure elements produced by STMicroelectronics and Samsung Electronics. Evaluations often reference testbeds and metrics developed in labs at CERN and Fraunhofer Society. Interactions with standards bodies such as ISO, ITU-T, and IETF shape conformance profiles for devices employing Secure Boot and trusted execution environments exemplified by technologies from ARM TrustZone and Intel SGX.
Work from CHES influences product lines including payment smartcards from Giesecke+Devrient, secure microcontrollers from Microchip Technology, and hardware security modules sold by Thales Group and Gemalto. Open-source projects and toolchains emerging from CHES communities inform implementations in toolkits like OpenSSL and cryptographic libraries used by projects at Linux Foundation. Academic prototypes often target platforms such as the Raspberry Pi, field-programmable gate arrays from Xilinx and Altera, and evaluation boards from Arduino. Commercial silicon incorporating countermeasures appears in mobile devices by Apple and Google as well as in automotive controllers supplied to companies like Bosch and Continental AG.
Findings reported at CHES expose vulnerabilities exploited by attack techniques including differential power analysis, electromagnetic probing, and laser fault injection demonstrated in research by groups at University of Birmingham and Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. Critics point to gaps between academic countermeasures and their adoption in mass-market devices produced by firms such as OnePlus and Xiaomi, arguing that cost, supply-chain complexity, and time-to-market pressures hinder deployment. Debates at CHES address responsible disclosure practices relating to vulnerabilities impacting systems by Visa and Mastercard, and discuss mitigation strategies aligned with security guidance from ENISA and incident-response teams at Microsoft.
CHES-driven research applies to secure payments, identity documents, digital signatures in e-government programs, and cryptographic accelerators used in cloud services by Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud Platform. Implementations secure Internet of Things devices manufactured by Huawei and Siemens and support secure communications for military contractors like BAE Systems and Northrop Grumman. Post-quantum hardware implementations evaluated at CHES aim to protect long-term confidentiality needs of institutions including European Central Bank and World Health Organization storing sensitive records.
Insights from CHES inform procurement standards and certification schemes such as Common Criteria, FIPS 140-3, and regional certification in markets like Japan and Brazil. Collaboration occurs with agencies including National Cyber Security Centre (UK) and Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency to translate research into guidance for critical-infrastructure operators. Industry consortia such as the Trusted Computing Group and the Secure IoT Alliance incorporate lessons on hardware attacks and mitigations into best-practice documents used by suppliers and systems integrators.
Category:Cryptography Category:Computer security conferences