4 ms·

No more RAM chip freezing to extract the encryption keys for Mr. Government Man...

• simias 15y ago
  This is actually a valid point, most modern encryption schemes rely on the fact that the RAM can't be dumped easily. I guess you could keep at least some volatile memory for storing sensitive information such as encryption keys. Of course unless the rest of the MRAM is encrypted you may indeed leak potentially sensitive data. Maybe dedicated hardware could encrypt/decrypt the RAM contents on the fly when the CPU or the devices access it, but it sounds costly.
  • wazoox 15y ago
    Processor cache could easily hold the encryption keys. Now that memory controllers are integrated to modern CPUs, this could be achieved quite easily when revamping the architecture, adding a couple of special instructions.
    • 4ad 15y ago
      No new instructions necessary: http://www1.informatik.uni-erlangen.de/tresor http://www1.informatik.uni-erlangen.de/tresor .
      • wazoox 15y ago
        Oh yeah, silly me, I had forgotten about that. However, probably a couple of specialized instructions or storage areas in cache or register may make it a little more easy to use.
      • simias 15y ago
        Interesting link. However it doesn't solve the security issues caused by non-volatile unencrypted system memory. I guess custom hardware could encrypt/decrypt the data going trough the memory controller on the fly.