research-article

Attack Directories on ARM big.LITTLE Processors

Authors:

Wei ZhangAuthors Info & Claims

ICCAD '22: Proceedings of the 41st IEEE/ACM International Conference on Computer-Aided Design

Article No.: 62, Pages 1 - 9

https://doi.org/10.1145/3508352.3549340

Published: 22 December 2022 Publication History

Abstract

Eviction-based cache side-channel attacks take advantage of inclusive cache hierarchies and shared cache hardware. Processors with the template ARM big.LITTLE architecture do not guarantee such preconditions and therefore will not usually allow cross-core attacks let alone cross-cluster attacks. This work reveals a new side-channel based on the snoop filter (SF), an unexplored directory structure embedded in template ARM big.LITTLE processors. Our systematic reverse engineering unveils the undocumented structure and property of the SF, and we successfully utilize it to bootstrap cross-core and cross-cluster cache eviction. We demonstrate a comprehensive methodology to exploit the SF side-channel, including the construction of eviction sets, the covert channel, and attacks against RSA and AES. When attacking TrustZone, we conduct an interrupt-based side-channel attack to extract the key of RSA by a single profiling trace, despite the strict cache clean defense. Supported by detailed experiments, the SF side-channel not only achieves competitive performance but also overcomes the main challenge of cache side-channel attacks on ARM big.LITTLE processors.

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Cited By

Chen YPashrashid AWu YCarlson T(2024)Prime+Reset: Introducing A Novel Cross-World Covert-Channel Through Comprehensive Security Analysis on ARM TrustZone2024 Design, Automation & Test in Europe Conference & Exhibition (DATE)10.23919/DATE58400.2024.10546531(1-6)Online publication date: 25-Mar-2024
https://doi.org/10.23919/DATE58400.2024.10546531
Zhang SWang HQiu PLyu YWang HWang D(2024)SCAFinder: Formal Verification of Cache Fine-Grained Features for Side Channel DetectionIEEE Transactions on Information Forensics and Security10.1109/TIFS.2024.345200219(8079-8093)Online publication date: 2024
https://doi.org/10.1109/TIFS.2024.3452002

Index Terms

Attack Directories on ARM big.LITTLE Processors
1. Computer systems organization
2. Security and privacy
  1. Security in hardware
  2. Systems security
    1. Operating systems security

Index terms have been assigned to the content through auto-classification.

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cover image ACM Conferences

ICCAD '22: Proceedings of the 41st IEEE/ACM International Conference on Computer-Aided Design

October 2022

1467 pages

ISBN:9781450392174

DOI:10.1145/3508352

Conference Chair:
Tulika Mitra
National University of Singapore
,
Program Chairs:
Evangeline Young
The Chinese University of Hong Kong
,
Jinjun Xiong
University at Buffalo (UB)

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Published: 22 December 2022

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Cited By

Chen YPashrashid AWu YCarlson T(2024)Prime+Reset: Introducing A Novel Cross-World Covert-Channel Through Comprehensive Security Analysis on ARM TrustZone2024 Design, Automation & Test in Europe Conference & Exhibition (DATE)10.23919/DATE58400.2024.10546531(1-6)Online publication date: 25-Mar-2024
https://doi.org/10.23919/DATE58400.2024.10546531
Zhang SWang HQiu PLyu YWang HWang D(2024)SCAFinder: Formal Verification of Cache Fine-Grained Features for Side Channel DetectionIEEE Transactions on Information Forensics and Security10.1109/TIFS.2024.345200219(8079-8093)Online publication date: 2024
https://doi.org/10.1109/TIFS.2024.3452002

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