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Security Fundamentals & Crypto · Advanced

Side-Channel Attack

Attack that extracts secrets from physical or implementation leaks such as timing, power, or electromagnetic emissions.

Definition

Side-channel attacks target the implementation rather than the algorithm. Examples include timing attacks on RSA, power analysis on smart cards, cache attacks such as Spectre and Meltdown, and acoustic attacks. Mitigations include constant-time code, masking, and shielding.

Example

Differential power analysis can recover an AES key from a smart card by measuring its power consumption.

Exam tip

A strong algorithm can be broken through a weak implementation; HSMs resist side channels.

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