File Format for Traces
We address standard APIs and interoperability issues for trace data formats of side-channel data and other real-time measurements of implementation security. We will host several invited speakers and have a discussion session. Our objective for this hour is to gather the community input and interest in the definition of a common API for Trace Data Formats.
Latest version: File Format for Traces v0.5 (1/6/2025)
Click to view BibTeX
@misc{optimist2025,
author = {Aydin Aysu and Gaetan Cassiers and Fatemeh Ganji and Vincent Immler and Jens-Peter Kaps and Trey Marcantonio and Jean-Michel Picod and Patrick Schaumont and Aurelien Vasselle},
title = {Open Tools, Interfaces and Metrics for Implementation Security Testing: File Format for Traces - Requirements and Glossary},
year = {2025},
month = {January},
day = {6},
version = {0.5},
note = {Working Document},
url = {https://optimist-ose.org/assets/files/ffft05-6bdf28fdf1636f01130d612f86ddd887.pdf},
institution = {Optimist OSE},
howpublished = {Online},
}
Talks
- Dev Mehta (WPI) — Challenges with using open source SCL databases [Slides]
- Marc Witteman (Riscure) — Standard API for Trace Data Formats [Slides]
- Vincent Immler (OSU) — Efficient Trace Storage [Slides]
- Aurelien Vasselle (eShard) — Open API for Trace Data Format [Slides]
References
- Tobias Schneider, Amir Moradi: Leakage Assessment Methodology - a Clear Roadmap for Side-channel Evaluations. IACR Cryptol. ePrint Arch. 2015: 207 (2015).
- Kostas Papagiannopoulos, Ognjen Glamocanin, Melissa Azouaoui, Dorian Ros, Francesco Regazzoni, Mirjana Stojilovic: The Side-channel Metrics Cheat Sheet. ACM Comput. Surv. 55(10): 216:1-216:38 (2023).
- Jonah Bosland, Stefan Ene, Peter Baumgartner, Vincent Immler: High-Performance Design Patterns and File Formats for Side-Channel Analysis. IACR Trans. Cryptogr. Hardw. Embed. Syst. 2024(2): 769-794 (2024).
- eShard. "eSTRACES: Open-source Set of Traces for Side-channel Analysis." Accessed [11/14/24]. https://eshard.gitlab.io/estraces/index.html.
- Riscure Security Solutions. "TRSFile documentation." Accessed [11/24/24]. https://trsfile.readthedocs.io/en/latest/index.html.
- Metadata explained for research data. Accessed [1/6/25].
https://zenodo.org/records/10222165. - Open Data & Metadata Quality. Accessed [1/6/25].
https://data.europa.eu/sites/default/files/d2.1.2_training_module_2.2_open_data_quality_en_edp.pdf. - NewAE. “File Formats” Accessed [01/08/2025]. http://wiki.newae.com/File_Formats.
Relevant Papers/Resources
Below is a list of papers published across varying mediums alongside varying resources that may be of some interest to those trying to develop or standardize a file format/framework for future use. If you know of a relevant paper please add it to the list below. File formats or frameworks should be added to their relevant lists as opposed to this one.
| Paper Title/Resource | Link |
|---|---|
| Optimization of Pearson correlation coefficient calculation for DPA and comparison of different approaches | [Link] |
| N5 Github | [Link] |
| Fast Leakage Assessment | [Link] |
| LZ4 | [Link] |
| SCABench | [Link] |
| Benchmarking eSHARD SCA Solution | [Link] |
| FOBOS 3: An Open-Source Platform for Side-Channel Analysis and Benchmarking | [Link] |
| High-Performance Design Patterns and File Formats for Side-Channel Analysis | [Link] |
| A Comparison of HDF5, Zarr, and netCDF4 in Performing Common I/O Operations | [Link] |
Working Group Meetings
- Thursday November 14th, 2024 (3 PM GMT) [Slides] - Working Group Meeting 1
- Thursday December 5th, 2024 (3 PM GMT) [Slides] - Working Group Meeting 2
- Thursday December 19th, 2024 (3 PM GMT) [Slides] - Working Group Meeting 3