United States of America’s NASA Astronaut Jessica Meir’s Hanukkah Wishes from the International Space Station: Happy Hanukkah to all those who celebrate it on Earth! (Originally Published in 2019)
United States of America’s NASA Astronaut Jessica Meir
The post Infosecurity.US Wishes All A Happy Hanukkah! appeared first on Security Boulevard.
Session 5D: Side Channels 1
Authors, Creators & Presenters: Jonas Juffinger (Graz University of Technology), Fabian Rauscher (Graz University of Technology), Giuseppe La Manna (Amazon), Daniel Gruss (Graz University of Technology)
PAPER
Secret Spilling Drive: Leaking User Behavior through SSD Contention
Covert channels and side channels bypass architectural security boundaries. Numerous works have studied covert channels and side channels in software and hardware. Thus, research on covert-channel and side-channel mitigations relies on the discovery of leaky hardware and software components. In this paper, we perform the first study of timing channels inside modern commodity off-the-shelf SSDs. We systematically analyze the behavior of NVMe PCIe SSDs with concurrent workloads. We observe that exceeding the maximum I/O operations of the SSD leads to significant latency spikes. We narrow down the number of I/O operations required to still induce latency spikes on 12 different SSDs. Our results show that a victim process needs to read at least 8 to 128 blocks to be still detectable by an attacker. Based on these experiments, we show that an attacker can build a covert channel, where the sender encodes secret bits into read accesses to unrelated blocks, inaccessible to the receiver. We demonstrate that this covert channel works across different systems and different SSDs, even from processes running inside a virtual machine. Our unprivileged SSD covert channel achieves a true capacity of up to 1503 bit/s while it works across virtual machines (cross-VM) and is agnostic to operating system versions, as well as other hardware characteristics such as CPU or DRAM. Given the coarse granularity of the SSD timing channel, we evaluate it as a side channel in an open-world website fingerprinting attack over the top 100 websites. We achieve an F1 score of up to 97.0. This shows that the leakage goes beyond covert communication and can leak highly sensitive information from victim users. Finally, we discuss the root cause of the SSD timing channel and how it can be mitigated.
ABOUT NDSS
The Network and Distributed System Security Symposium (NDSS) fosters information exchange among researchers and practitioners of network and distributed system security. The target audience includes those interested in practical aspects of network and distributed system security, with a focus on actual system design and implementation. A major goal is to encourage and enable the Internet community to apply, deploy, and advance the state of available security technologies.
Our thanks to the Network and Distributed System Security (NDSS) Symposium for publishing their Creators, Authors and Presenter’s superb NDSS Symposium 2025 Conference content on the Organizations' YouTube Channel.
The post NDSS 2025 – Secret Spilling Drive: Leaking User Behavior Through SSD Contention appeared first on Security Boulevard.
How can we describe the past year in cybersecurity? No doubt, AI was front and center in so many conversations, and now there’s no going back. Here’s why.
The post 2025: The Year Cybersecurity Crossed the AI Rubicon appeared first on Security Boulevard.
What is the LGPD (Brazil)? The Lei Geral de Proteção de Dados Pessoais (LGPD), or General Data Protection Law (Law No. 13.709/2018), is Brazil’s comprehensive data protection framework, inspired by the European Union’s GDPR. It regulates the collection, use, storage, and sharing of personal data, applying to both public and private entities, regardless of industry, […]
The post LGPD (Brazil) appeared first on Centraleyes.
The post LGPD (Brazil) appeared first on Security Boulevard.
What Makes AI-Driven Security Solutions Crucial in Modern Cloud Environments? How can organizations navigate the complexities of cybersecurity to ensure robust protection, particularly when dealing with Non-Human Identities (NHIs) in cloud environments? The answer lies in leveraging AI-driven security solutions, offering remarkable freedom of choice and adaptability for cybersecurity professionals. Understanding Non-Human Identities: The Backbone […]
The post Why are companies free to choose their own AI-driven security solutions? appeared first on Entro.
The post Why are companies free to choose their own AI-driven security solutions? appeared first on Security Boulevard.
What Are Non-Human Identities and Why Are They Essential for Cybersecurity? Have you ever pondered the complexity of cybersecurity beyond human interactions? Non-Human Identities (NHIs) are becoming a cornerstone in securing digital environments. With the guardians of machine identities, NHIs are pivotal in addressing the security gaps prevalent between research and development teams and security […]
The post How does NHI support the implementation of least privilege? appeared first on Entro.
The post How does NHI support the implementation of least privilege? appeared first on Security Boulevard.
How Are Non-Human Identities Transforming Cybersecurity Practices? Are you aware of the increasing importance of Non-Human Identities (NHIs)? Where organizations transition towards more automated and cloud-based environments, managing NHIs and secrets security becomes vital. These machine identities serve as the backbone for securing sensitive operations across industries like financial services, healthcare, and DevOps environments. Understanding […]
The post Can Agentic AI provide solutions that make stakeholders feel assured? appeared first on Entro.
The post Can Agentic AI provide solutions that make stakeholders feel assured? appeared first on Security Boulevard.
How Can Organizations Enhance Their Cloud Security Through Non-Human Identities? Have you ever wondered about the unseen challenges within your cybersecurity framework? Managing Non-Human Identities (NHIs) and their associated secrets has emerged as a vital component in establishing a robust security posture. For organizations operating in the cloud, neglecting to secure machine identities can result […]
The post How are secrets scanning technologies getting better? appeared first on Entro.
The post How are secrets scanning technologies getting better? appeared first on Security Boulevard.
Session 5D: Side Channels 1
Authors, Creators & Presenters: Fabian Rauscher (Graz University of Technology), Carina Fiedler (Graz University of Technology), Andreas Kogler (Graz University of Technology), Daniel Gruss (Graz University of Technology)
PAPER
A Systematic Evaluation Of Novel And Existing Cache Side Channels
CPU caches are among the most widely studied side-channel targets, with Prime+Probe and Flush+Reload being the most prominent techniques. These generic cache attack techniques can leak cryptographic keys, user input, and are a building block of many microarchitectural attacks. In this paper, we present the first systematic evaluation using 9 characteristics of the 4 most relevant cache attacks, Flush+Reload, Flush+Flush, Evict+Reload, and Prime+Probe, as well as three new attacks that we introduce: Demote+Reload, Demote+Demote, and DemoteContention. We evaluate hit-miss margins, temporal precision, spatial precision, topological scope, attack time, blind spot length, channel capacity, noise resilience, and detectability on recent Intel microarchitectures. Demote+Reload and Demote+Demote perform similar to previous attacks and slightly better in some cases, e.g., Demote+Reload has a 60.7 % smaller blind spot than Flush+Reload. With 15.48 Mbit/s, Demote+Reload has a 64.3 % higher channel capacity than Flush+Reload. We also compare all attacks in an AES T-table attack and compare Demote+Reload and Flush+Reload in an inter-keystroke timing attack. Beyond the scope of the prior attack techniques, we demonstrate a KASLR break with Demote+Demote and the amplification of power side-channel leakage with Demote+Reload. Finally, Sapphire Rapids and Emerald Rapids CPUs use a non-inclusive L3 cache, effectively limiting eviction-based cross-core attacks, e.g., Prime+Probe and Evict+Reload, to rare cases where the victim's activity reaches the L3 cache. Hence, we show that in a cross-core attack, DemoteContention can be used as a reliable alternative to Prime+Probe and Evict+Reload that does not require reverse-engineering of addressing functions and cache replacement policy.
ABOUT NDSS
The Network and Distributed System Security Symposium (NDSS) fosters information exchange among researchers and practitioners of network and distributed system security. The target audience includes those interested in practical aspects of network and distributed system security, with a focus on actual system design and implementation. A major goal is to encourage and enable the Internet community to apply, deploy, and advance the state of available security technologies.
Our thanks to the Network and Distributed System Security (NDSS) Symposium for publishing their Creators, Authors and Presenter’s superb NDSS Symposium 2025 Conference content on the Organizations' YouTube Channel.
The post NDSS 2025 – A Systematic Evaluation Of Novel And Existing Cache Side Channels appeared first on Security Boulevard.
Will the perception of security completely overturn with the exponential growth of AI in today’s technology-driven world? As we approach 2026, attackers upgrading to AI cyberattacks is no longer a possibility but a known fact. Let us examine the emerging trends in AI-driven cyberattacks and see how businesses of all sizes can strengthen their defenses […]
The post 2026 Will Be the Year of AI-based Cyberattacks – How Can Organizations Prepare? appeared first on Kratikal Blogs.
The post 2026 Will Be the Year of AI-based Cyberattacks – How Can Organizations Prepare? appeared first on Security Boulevard.
Turn XDR volume into revenue. Morpheus investigates 100% of alerts and triages 95% in under 2 minutes, letting MSSPs scale without adding headcount.
The post The Autonomous MSSP: How to Turn XDR Volume into a Competitive Advantage appeared first on D3 Security.
The post The Autonomous MSSP: How to Turn XDR Volume into a Competitive Advantage appeared first on Security Boulevard.
One thing is certain: every year, the cybersecurity threat environment will evolve. AI tools, advances in computing, the growth of high-powered data centers that can be weaponized, compromised IoT networks, and all of the traditional vectors grow and change. As such, the tools and frameworks we use to resist these attacks will also need to […]
The post What New Changes Are Coming to FedRAMP in 2026? appeared first on Security Boulevard.
I have no context for this video—it’s from Reddit—but one of the commenters adds some context:
Hey everyone, squid biologist here! Wanted to add some stuff you might find interesting.
With so many people carrying around cameras, we’re getting more videos of giant squid at the surface than in previous decades. We’re also starting to notice a pattern, that around this time of year (peaking in January) we see a bunch of giant squid around Japan. We don’t know why this is happening. Maybe they gather around there to mate or something? who knows! but since so many people have cameras, those one-off monster-story encounters are now caught on video, like this one (which, btw, rips. This squid looks so healthy, it’s awesome)...
The post Friday Squid Blogging: Giant Squid Eating a Diamondback Squid appeared first on Security Boulevard.
How Can Organizations Safeguard Non-Human Identities in the Cloud? Are your organization’s machine identities as secure as they should be? With digital evolves, the protection of Non-Human Identities (NHIs) becomes crucial for maintaining robust cybersecurity postures. NHIs represent machine identities like encrypted passwords, tokens, and keys, which are pivotal in ensuring effective cloud security control. […]
The post What are the best practices for ensuring NHIs are protected? appeared first on Entro.
The post What are the best practices for ensuring NHIs are protected? appeared first on Security Boulevard.
How Critical is Managing Non-Human Identities for Cloud Security? Are you familiar with the virtual tourists navigating your digital right now? These tourists, known as Non-Human Identities (NHIs), are machine identities pivotal in computer security, especially within cloud environments. These NHIs are akin to digital travelers carrying passports and visas—where the passport represents an encrypted […]
The post How do secrets rotations drive innovations in security? appeared first on Entro.
The post How do secrets rotations drive innovations in security? appeared first on Security Boulevard.
Are Non-Human Identities Key to an Optimal Cybersecurity Budget? Have you ever pondered over the hidden costs of cybersecurity that might be draining your resources without your knowledge? Non-Human Identities (NHIs) and Secrets Security Management are essential components of a cost-effective cybersecurity strategy, especially when organizations increasingly operate in cloud environments. Understanding Non-Human Identities (NHIs) […]
The post How can effective NHIs fit your cybersecurity budget? appeared first on Entro.
The post How can effective NHIs fit your cybersecurity budget? appeared first on Security Boulevard.
Are Non-Human Identities the Key to Strengthening Agentic AI Security? Where increasingly dominated by Agentic AI, organizations are pivoting toward more advanced security paradigms to protect their digital. Non-Human Identities (NHI) and Secrets Security Management have emerged with pivotal elements to fortify this quest for heightened cybersecurity. But why should this trend be generating excitement […]
The post What aspects of Agentic AI security should get you excited? appeared first on Entro.
The post What aspects of Agentic AI security should get you excited? appeared first on Security Boulevard.
Session 5D: Side Channels 1
Authors, Creators & Presenters: Lukas Maar (Graz University of Technology), Jonas Juffinger (Graz University of Technology), Thomas Steinbauer (Graz University of Technology), Daniel Gruss (Graz University of Technology), Stefan Mangard (Graz University of Technology)
PAPER
KernelSnitch: Side Channel-Attacks On Kernel Data Structures
The sharing of hardware elements, such as caches, is known to introduce microarchitectural side-channel leakage. One approach to eliminate this leakage is to not share hardware elements across security domains. However, even under the assumption of leakage-free hardware, it is unclear whether other critical system components, like the operating system, introduce software-caused side-channel leakage. In this paper, we present a novel generic software side-channel attack, KernelSnitch, targeting kernel data structures such as hash tables and trees. These structures are commonly used to store both kernel and user information, e.g., metadata for userspace locks. KernelSnitch exploits that these data structures are variable in size, ranging from an empty state to a theoretically arbitrary amount of elements. Accessing these structures requires a variable amount of time depending on the number of elements, i.e., the occupancy level. This variance constitutes a timing side channel, observable from user space by an unprivileged, isolated attacker. While the timing differences are very low compared to the syscall runtime, we demonstrate and evaluate methods to amplify these timing differences reliably. In three case studies, we show that KernelSnitch allows unprivileged and isolated attackers to leak sensitive information from the kernel and activities in other processes. First, we demonstrate covert channels with transmission rates up to 580 kbit/s. Second, we perform a kernel heap pointer leak in less than 65 s by exploiting the specific indexing that Linux is using in hash tables. Third, we demonstrate a website fingerprinting attack, achieving an F1 score of more than 89 %, showing that activity in other user programs can be observed using KernelSnitch. Finally, we discuss mitigations for our hardware-agnostic attacks.
ABOUT NDSS
The Network and Distributed System Security Symposium (NDSS) fosters information exchange among researchers and practitioners of network and distributed system security. The target audience includes those interested in practical aspects of network and distributed system security, with a focus on actual system design and implementation. A major goal is to encourage and enable the Internet community to apply, deploy, and advance the state of available security technologies.
Our thanks to the Network and Distributed System Security (NDSS) Symposium for publishing their Creators, Authors and Presenter’s superb NDSS Symposium 2025 Conference content on the Organizations' YouTube Channel.
The post NDSS 2025 – KernelSnitch: Side Channel-Attacks On Kernel Data Structures appeared first on Security Boulevard.
MCP is transforming AI agent connectivity, but authentication is the critical gap. Learn about Shadow IT risks, enterprise requirements, and solutions.
The post What Tech Leaders Need to Know About MCP Authentication in 2025 appeared first on Security Boulevard.
In a nod to the evolving threat landscape that comes with cloud computing and AI and the growing supply chain threats, Microsoft is broadening its bug bounty program to reward researchers who uncover threats to its users that come from third-party code, like commercial and open source software,
The post Microsoft Expands its Bug Bounty Program to Include Third-Party Code appeared first on Security Boulevard.
