Presentation Material
Abstract
With the improvements in technology, hackers are also getting equipped with better rigs day by day. Apart from usual attack vectors in software, hackers have started exploiting the hardware side of computing infrastructure; which has given birth to some famous attacks (e.g. Meltdown, Spectre, Fan-smitter). This paper presents yet another attack vector, which uses temperature pattern of CPU dice as transmission medium to leak data covertly, and then uses that to make containerized processes talk to each other. The paper talks about motivation behind the research, design and analysis of covert channel, challenges, and possible countermeasures against it.
Presented at Security Fest 2024.
AI Generated Summary (may contain errors)
The talk focused on breaching the container boundary in Docker containers using side-channel attacks. The researcher aimed to leak data from one container to another without exploiting any vulnerabilities or misconfigurations. The motivation behind this research was to demonstrate the possibility of such an attack, given the increasing popularity of containers and the potential for undetectable attacks.
The researcher provided a brief overview of container internals, CPU instruction sets, and power consumption. They explained how physical layer communication works and how side channels can be designed. The talk also covered the basics of self-clocking signaling, modulation, and error correction codes.
The researcher presented a proof-of-concept attack using temperature as a covert channel. They stressed the CPU by executing complex instructions, causing it to heat up, and then used this temperature change to transmit data between containers. The researcher used the AVX instruction set and identified specific instructions that caused significant temperature spikes.
The practical implications of this research are significant, as it demonstrates a new attack vector for containers. The talk highlighted the importance of monitoring and detecting side-channel attacks, which can be extremely difficult to identify. The researcher also discussed possible countermeasures, such as improving container isolation and implementing detection tools.
The key takeaways from this talk are:
- Side-channel attacks can be used to breach container boundaries without exploiting vulnerabilities or misconfigurations.
- Temperature can be used as a covert channel to transmit data between containers.
- Complex instructions, such as those in the AVX instruction set, can be used to stress the CPU and cause temperature changes.
- Monitoring and detecting side-channel attacks is crucial to preventing such attacks.
- Improving container isolation and implementing detection tools can help mitigate these types of attacks.