CAPEC-622: Electromagnetic Side-Channel Attack
Description
In this attack scenario, the attacker passively monitors electromagnetic emanations that are produced by the targeted electronic device as an unintentional side-effect of its processing. From these emanations, the attacker derives information about the data that is being processed (e.g. the attacker can recover cryptographic keys by monitoring emanations associated with cryptographic processing). This style of attack requires proximal access to the device, however attacks have been demonstrated at public conferences that work at distances of up to 10-15 feet. There have not been any significant studies to determine the maximum practical distance for such attacks. Since the attack is passive, it is nearly impossible to detect and the targeted device will continue to operate as normal after a successful attack.
- Likelihood of attack
- Not rated by MITRE
- Typical severity
- Low
- Abstraction
- DetailedA low-level, detailed pattern, often for a particular technology.
Mechanism of attack: Collect and Analyze Information
Prerequisites
- Proximal access to the device.
Skills required
- MediumSophisticated attack, but detailed techniques published in the open literature.
Consequences
- Confidentiality
Read Data
Derive sensitive information about encrypted data. For mobile devices, depending on which keys are compromised, the attacker may be able to decrypt VOIP communications, impersonate the targeted caller, or access the enterprise VPN server.
Mitigations
- Utilize side-channel resistant implementations of all crypto algorithms.
- Strong physical security of all devices that contain secret key information. (even when devices are not in use)