ISC2 CISSP Practice Question

This describes a timing attack, which is a specific type of side-channel attack. In a timing attack, the attacker analyzes the time taken to execute cryptographic operations. Since different operations may take measurably different amounts of time depending on the inputs, an attacker can analyze these timing differences to potentially extract sensitive information like cryptographic keys.

Other side-channel attacks work differently:

• Power analysis attacks measure power consumption variations during cryptographic operations.
• Electromagnetic analysis captures electromagnetic radiation emanating from the device.
• Acoustic analysis listens to sound patterns produced by components during operation.
• Cache attacks exploit shared cache mechanisms in systems.

Protections against timing attacks include implementing constant-time algorithms that perform operations in the same amount of time regardless of inputs, adding random delays to operations, or using hardware specifically designed to resist such attacks.