/cache-attack-example

Minimal cache attack example

Primary LanguageC

Minimal cache attack example on OS X

This is a simple demonstration of cache side channels via CPU instruction counter. Complie with make. The program reads a secret from stdin and copies it into a buffer allocated in memory. Information about the secret (in this case, whether it is greater than 42) value is subsequently revealed via the number of CPU cycles it takes to access an adjacent memory location.

Example usage

» make
clang example.c -o example
» make run
./example
Enter an integer:100
Time delta = 52; read garbage = 0
» make
clang example.c -o example
» make run
./example
Enter the secret:0
Time delta = 7335; read garbage = 0