If the attacker and the victim have shared memory, the attacker can observe the victim's behavior regarding this shared memory by observing the cache state. If the attacker evicts a shared value of interest from the cache, then loads the value again after the victim's execution, based on the time taken it can determine whether the victim accessed the same value.

Description

If the attacker and the victim have shared memory, the attacker can observe the victim's behavior regarding this shared memory by observing the cache state. If the attacker evicts a shared value of interest from the cache, then loads the value again after the victim's execution, based on the time taken it can determine whether the victim accessed the same value.

CWE

CVE

Attack Surfaces

Cache Memory (MITRE EMB3D PID-11)

Attack Vectors

Cache State (MITRE EMB3D TID-103)

Defenses

constant-time code, make memory accesses independent of secrets

avoiding shared memory, duplicate shared memory such as libraries

removing the contention, cache partitioning

making the leakage probabilistic, randomize the cache replacement policy