This is a clever new <a href=”https://www.nassiben.com/video-based-crypta>side-channel attack:
The first attack uses an Internet-connected surveillance camera to take a high-speed video of the power LED on a smart card readeror of an attached peripheral deviceduring cryptographic operations. This technique allowed the researchers to pull a 256-bit ECDSA key off the same government-approved smart card used in Minerva. The other allowed the researchers to recover the private SIKE key of a Samsung Galaxy S8 phone by training the camera of an iPhone 13 on the power LED of a USB speaker connected to the handset, in a similar way to how Hertzbleed pulled SIKE keys off Intel and AMD CPUs.
There are lots of limitations:
When the camera is 60 feet away, the room lights must be turned off, but they can be turned on if the surveillance camera is at a distance of about 6 feet. (An attacker can also use an iPhone to record the smart card reader power LED.) The video must be captured for 65 minutes, during which the reader must constantly perform the operation.
[…]
The attack assumes there is an existing side channel that leaks power consumption, timing, or other physical manifestations of the device as it performs a cryptographic operation.
So don’t expect this attack to be recovering keys in the real world anytime soon. But, still, really nice work.
More details from the researchers.
More Stories
Smashing Security podcast #399: Honey in hot water, and reset your devices
Ever wonder how those "free" browser extensions that promise to save you money actually work? We dive deep into the...
Space Bears ransomware: what you need to know
The Space Bears ransomware gang stands out from the crowd by presenting itself better than many legitimate companies, with corporate...
Fancy Product Designer Plugin Flaws Expose WordPress Sites
Critical Fancy Product Designer plugin flaws risk remote code execution and SQL injection attacks on WordPress sites Read More
Japan Faces Prolonged Cyber-Attacks Linked to China’s MirrorFace
Cyber-attacks by China-linked MirrorFace targeted Japan’s national security information in major campaigns operating since 2019 Read More
PowerSchool Reportedly Pays Ransom to Prevent Student Data Leak
A school district said that PowerSchool paid a ransom to prevent the attackers releasing data it accessed of students and...