Falcon Without Floating-Point: PQShield's Fixed-Point Scheme Dodges Side-Channel Leaks
jedisct1 · x · 2026-09-12
Falcon (future FN-DSA, FIPS-206) is compact and efficient but heavily relies on floating-point arithmetic — a problem for devices without FPUs and a known side-channel attack surface; emulating FPA in constant time is 20x slower.
In a CRYPTO 2026 paper, PQShield and University of Rennes researchers propose a new implementation strategy based on fixed-point arithmetic, sidestepping FPA entirely and enabling safer, faster Falcon deployments on low-end hardware.
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