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TLBleed

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

TLBleed is a cryptographic side-channel attack that uses machine learning to exploit a timing side-channel via the translation look-aside buffer (TLB) on modern microprocessors that use simultaneous multithreading.[1][2] As of June 2018, the attack has only been demonstrated experimentally on Intel processors; it is speculated that other processors may also potentially be vulnerable to a variant of the attack, but no proof of concept has been demonstrated.[3] AMD had indicated that their processors would not be vulnerable to this attack.[4]

The attack led to the OpenBSD project disabling simultaneous multithreading on Intel microprocessors.[2][5] The OpenBSD project leader Theo de Raadt has stated that, while the attack could theoretically be addressed by preventing tasks with different security contexts from sharing physical cores, such a fix is currently impractical because of the complexity of the problem.[2]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Williams, Chris (2018-06-22). "Meet TLBleed: A crypto-key-leaking CPU attack that Intel reckons we shouldn't worry about". The Register. Retrieved 2018-06-25.
  2. ^ a b c Varghese, Sam (2018-06-25). "OpenBSD chief de Raadt says no easy fix for new Intel CPU bug". www.itwire.com. Retrieved 2018-06-25.
  3. ^ Halfacree, Gareth (2018-06-25). "Researchers warn of TLBleed Hyper-Threading vuln". bit-tech.net. Retrieved 2018-06-25.
  4. ^ Williams, Chris (2018-06-22). "Meet TLBleed: A crypto-key-leaking CPU attack that Intel reckons we shouldn't worry about". The Register. Retrieved 2018-06-25.
  5. ^ Varghese, Sam (2018-06-21). "OpenBSD disables hyperthreading support for Intel CPUs due to likely data leaks". www.itwire.com. Retrieved 2018-06-25.
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