Sliding Windows is a general technique for obtaining an efficient exponentiation scheme. Big Mac is a specific form of attack
on a cryptosystem in which bits of a secret key can be deduced independently, or almost so, of the others. Here such an attack
on an implementation of the RSA cryptosystem is described. It assumes digit-by-digit computations are performed sequentially
on a single k-bit multiplier and uses information which leaks through differential power analysis (DPA). With sufficiently powerful monitoring
equipment, only a small number of exponentiations, independent of the key length, is enough to reveal the secret exponent
from unknown plaintext inputs. Since the technique may work for a single exponentiation, many blinding techniques currently under consideration may be rendered useless. This is particularly relevant
to implementations with single processors where a digit multiplication cannot be masked by other simultaneous processing.
Moreover, the longer the key length, the easier the attacks becomes.
Keywords Cryptography – RSA – differential power analysis – blinding – DPA – smart card – exponentiation – sliding windows