Security vulnerability in Internet of Things sensor networks protected by Advanced Encryption Standard

In the new era of Internet of Things, the emerging of smart devices makes security and privacy the first requirements and the major challenges of a distributed network. Despite the implementation of security measures, as encryption mechanisms protecting sensor data, and cryptographic algorithms, various attacks seem to undermine the IoT devices security. This paper reports the preliminary results of a side-channel attack (scatter attack) addressed on an 8-bit IoT microcontroller protected by the Advanced Encryption Standard. The attack, based on an high-SNR data acquisition micro-system and a suitable statistical analysis, allows to discover part of the encryption key, demonstrating the security vulnerability of Internet of Things sensor networks protected by the AES.