General information
Organisation
The French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) is a key player in research, development and innovation in four main areas :
• defence and security,
• nuclear energy (fission and fusion),
• technological research for industry,
• fundamental research in the physical sciences and life sciences.
Drawing on its widely acknowledged expertise, and thanks to its 16000 technicians, engineers, researchers and staff, the CEA actively participates in collaborative projects with a large number of academic and industrial partners.
The CEA is established in ten centers spread throughout France
Reference
SL-DRT-26-0286
Direction
DRT
Thesis topic details
Category
Technological challenges
Thesis topics
Physical-attack-assisted cryptanalysis for error-correcting code-based schemes
Contract
Thèse
Job description
The security assessment of post-quantum cryptography, from the perspective of physical attacks, has been extensively studied in the literature, particularly with regard to the ML-KEM and ML-DSA standards, which are based on Euclidean lattices. Furthermore, in March 2025, the HQC scheme, based on error-correcting codes, was standardized as an alternative key encapsulation mechanism to ML-KEM. Recently, Soft-Analytical Side-Channel Attacks (SASCA) have been used on a wide variety of algorithms to combine information related to intermediate variables in order to trace back to the secret, providing a form of “correction” to the uncertainty associated with profiled attacks. SASCA is based on probabilistic models called “factor graphs,” to which a “belief propagation” algorithm is applied. In the case of attacks on post-quantum cryptosystems, it is theoretically possible to use the underlying mathematical structure to process the output of a SASCA attack in the form of cryptanalysis. This has been demonstrated, for example, on ML-KEM. The objective of this thesis is to develop a methodology and the necessary tools for cryptanalysis and residual complexity calculation for cryptography based on error-correcting codes. These tools will need to take into account information (“hints”) obtained from a physical attack. A second part of the thesis will be to study the impact that this type of tool can have on the design of countermeasures.
University / doctoral school
Sciences et Ingénierie des Systèmes, Mathématiques, Informatique (SISMI)
Limoges
Thesis topic location
Site
Grenoble
Requester
Position start date
01/06/2026
Person to be contacted by the applicant
LOISEAU Antoine
antoine.loiseau@cea.fr
CEA
DRT/DSYS/SSSEC/LSCO
Bat 40.22
CEA Grenoble,
17 Avenue des Martyrs, 38000 Grenoble
0438783105
Tutor / Responsible thesis director
GABORIT Philippe
gaborit@unilim.fr
Université de Limoges
XLIM
33 rue François Mitterrand
BP 23204
87032 Limoges - France
En savoir plus
http://www.leti-cea.fr/cea-tech/leti/Pages/recherche-appliquee/infrastructures-de-recherche/plateforme-cybersecurite.aspx