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Plundering of crypto keys from ultrasecure SGX sends Intel scrambling again
- robocat 6y agoThe important part of the article comes half way through, under the heading “But wait... there’s also CrossTalk“. “The second SGX attack is notable because it’s based on a previously unknown side channel created by an undocumented buffer that all Intel CPU cores use. This ‘staging buffer,’ as researchers from Vrije University in Amsterdam and ETH Zurich call it, retains the results of previously executed offcore instructions across all CPU cores. [snip] First, the staging buffer retains output from RDRAND and RDSEED“ “Equally important, the side channel provided by this newly discovered staging buffer allowed the attackers to create the world’s first-known speculative execution attack that works across CPU cores.” Disabling Intel SMT (hyperthreading) does not protect from this attack. I also like the comment: “Most of these attacks are targeted at the data center.” riposte: “Even if you are completely unconcerned with your machine being a security swiss cheese, [snip] every time Intel patches a mitigation, performance tanks.”