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Side Channel Attacks

All articles tagged with #side channel attacks

technology2 years ago•3 min saved

Intel Faces Lawsuit Over Inaction on Insecure AVX Chips, Surprising Revelation Emerges

Intel is facing a lawsuit from PC buyers who claim that the company knew about the vulnerability of its AVX instruction set to side-channel attacks since 2018 but failed to fix the defect until the disclosure of the Downfall vulnerability this year. The lawsuit alleges that Intel sold billions of insecure chips during this period, leaving affected computer buyers with no choice but to apply a patch that slows performance by up to 50%. Downfall is a microarchitectural flaw that allows the extraction of sensitive information from memory during speculative execution. The plaintiffs argue that Intel should have secured AVX back in 2018 but failed to do so, leading to the discovery of Downfall five years later.

via The Register|

#avx-chips #downfall-vulnerability #intel

technology2 years ago•4 min saved

"MIT's Cybersecurity Metior: Safeguarding Against Side-Channel Attacks"

MIT researchers have developed a framework called Metior that quantitatively evaluates the effectiveness of obfuscation schemes used to protect against side-channel attacks. Metior allows engineers to analyze how different victim programs, attacker strategies, and obfuscation scheme configurations affect the amount of sensitive information that is leaked. The framework aims to aid in the selection of effective security strategies during the chip design process, helping engineers evaluate the effectiveness of multiple security schemes and determine the most promising architecture. The researchers hope that Metior will inspire the development of microarchitectural security evaluation methodologies that can be applied early in the chip design process.

via SciTechDaily|

#chip-design #cybersecurity #mit

cybersecurity2 years ago•3 min saved

Video-Recording Power LEDs Can Lead to Cryptographic Key Theft by Hackers.

Researchers have discovered a new way to exploit side channels in smart cards and smartphones by using cameras in iPhones or commercial surveillance systems to video record power LEDs that show when the card reader or smartphone is turned on. The attacks enable the recovery of secret encryption keys stored in smart cards and smartphones, which underpin the security and confidentiality of a cryptographic algorithm. The video-based attacks reduce or completely eliminate the need for specialized and often expensive instruments attached or near the targeted device.

via Ars Technica|

#cryptography #cybersecurity #encryption-keys