TEMPEST and Side Channel Attacks (4 of 5)

Cache & Timing Attacks

Cache based attacks on CPUs have been around for a number of years, with Specter and Meltdown being some of the widely known issues of recent times. These attacks use things like execution times or execution order to leak secure information.

In 2016 a team from Graz University of Technology proved that cache attacks are possible on un-rooted Android smartphones, leaving no type of CPU-based digital device unaffected. Because these attacks rely heavily on statistical analysis and repeated loops to attack the underlying architecture of a system, faster machines have made cache and timing-based attacks faster and more accessible than ever.