A Survey of Timing Channels and Countermeasures

Abstract

A timing channel is a communication channel that can transfer information to a receiver/decoder by modulating the timing behavior of an agent. Examples of this agent include the inter-packet delays of a packet stream, reordering packets in a packet stream or resource access time of a cryptographic module. The advances in information theory and the availability of high performance computing systems interconnected by high speed networks, have spurred interest and development of various types of timing channels. With the emergence of complex timing channels, novel detection and prevention techniques are also being developed to counter them. In this paper we provide a detailed survey of timing channels broadly categorized into network timing channel in which communicating entities are connected by a network and in-system timing channel in which the communicating entities are within a computing system. This survey builds upon the last comprehensive survey by [Zander et al. 2007] and considers all the three canonical applications of timing channels namely, covert communication, timing side-channel, and network flow watermarking. We survey the theoretical foundations, the implementation, and the various detection and prevention techniques that have been reported in the literature. Based on the analysis of the current literature we articulate potential future research directions both in the design and applications of timing channels and their detection and prevention techniques.

Systematic Classification of Side-Channel Attacks: A Case Study for Mobile Devices

“…Survey Platform Topic 2011 Enck [30] Smartphone Malware/app analysis and protection mechanisms 2013 La Polla et al [31] Smartphone Threats and vulnerabilities, focusing on the period 2004-2011 2014 Suarez-Tangil et al [32] Smartphone Threats and vulnerabilities, focusing on the period 2010-2013 2015 Faruki et al [33] Smartphone Threats and vulnerabilities, focusing on the period 2010-2014 2015 Rashidi and Fung [34] Smartphone Analysis techniques to cope with malware 2016 Sadeghi et al [35] Smartphone Tools and techniques to identify malware 2017 Tam et al [36] Smartphone Analysis techniques to identify malware 2014 Tunstall [37] Smart card Side-channel attacks on cryptographic algorithms 2007 Zander et al [38] PC Covert channels via computer network protocols 2017 Biswas et al [39] PC Timing channels, focusing on microarchitectural attacks 2016 Ge et al [7] Cloud Microarchitectural attacks 2016 Szefer [40] Cloud Microarchitectural attacks 2017 Ullrich et al [41] Cloud Network-based side channels (and communication channels) 2017 Betz et al [42] Cloud Communication channels 2016 Xu et al [43] Smartphone Attacks & defense measures 2016 Hussain et al [44] Smartphone Sensor-based keylogging attacks 2016 Nahapetian [45] Smartphone Sensor-based keylogging attacks…”

A network covert timing channel detection method based on threshold secret sharing

“…Next, we introduce some typical detection methods for NCTCs. These methods can be broadly categorized as belonging to one of the three classes, namely, regularity tests, shape tests, and entropy tests. The current problem is that some methods can only detect certain types of NCTCs.…”

Detecting Time-Fragmented Cache Attacks Against AES Using Performance Monitoring Counters

“…Detailed surveys on microarchitectural timing attacks in general [8], [2] and cache timing attacks in particular [11] can be found in the literature. [5] includes a systematic evaluation of transient execution attacks.…”

“…Hence, a malicious process which is being executed in one core of the system can extract information from a victim executed in a different core. The most commonly used resource as side-channel to extract information is the shared cache [2].…”