2021 CWE Most Important Hardware Weaknesses


"The 2021 CWE™ Most Important Hardware Weaknesses is the first of its kind and the result of collaboration within the Hardware CWE Special Interest Group (SIG), a community forum for individuals representing organizations within hardware design, manufacturing, research, and security domains, as well as academia and government. The goals for the 2021 Hardware List are to drive awarenes... » read more

The 5 Essential Elements Of A Successful Software Security Initiative


Every organization that develops or integrates software needs a software security initiative—a blend of people, processes and tools that ensures applications and the data they process are secure. As customers, regulators, executives and boards of directors start asking for evidence of a formal approach to software security, organizations are trying to determine where to start, how to construc... » read more

Security Research Bits


A number of hardware security-related technical papers were presented at the August 2021 USENIX Security Symposium. The organization provides open access research, and the presentation slides and papers are free to the public. Topics include side-channel attacks and defenses, embedded security, hardware security tokens, and more. Here are some highlights with associated links:   [tab... » read more

PTAuth: Temporal Memory Safety via Robust Points-to Authentication


Authors: Reza Mirzazade Farkhani, Mansour Ahmadi, and Long Lu, Northeastern University Abstract: "Temporal memory corruptions are commonly exploited software vulnerabilities that can lead to powerful attacks. Despite significant progress made by decades of research on mitigation techniques, existing countermeasures fall short due to either limited coverage or overly high overhead. Further... » read more

Database Reconstruction from Noisy Volumes: A Cache Side-Channel Attack on SQLite


Authors: Aria Shahverdi, University of Maryland; Mahammad Shirinov, Bilkent University; Dana Dachman-Soled, University of Maryland Abstract: "We demonstrate the feasibility of database reconstruction under a cache side-channel attack on SQLite. Specifically, we present a Flush+Reload attack on SQLite that obtains approximate (or "noisy") volumes of range queries made to a private database... » read more

Automatic Extraction of Secrets from the Transistor Jungle using Laser-Assisted Side-Channel Attacks


Abstract:  "The security of modern electronic devices relies on secret keys stored on secure hardware modules as the root-of-trust (RoT). Extracting those keys would break the security of the entire system. As shown before, sophisticated side-channel analysis (SCA) attacks, using chip failure analysis (FA) techniques, can extract data from on-chip memory cells. However, since the chip's... » read more

Usability of Authenticity Checks for Hardware Security Tokens


Abstract:  "The final responsibility to verify whether a newly purchased hardware security token (HST) is authentic and unmodified lies with the end user. However, recently reported attacks on such tokens suggest that users cannot take the security guarantees of their HSTs for granted, even despite widely deployed authenticity checks. We present the first comprehensive market review eva... » read more

Grappling With Smart City Security Issues


Security concerns are rising as cities seek to modernize services by connecting them to the internet and to each other, creating a widening attack surface that is a potential target for everything from disruption of services to ransomware demands. The goal of smart cities is to apply technology and intelligence to a variety of services to enable independent operation, real-time response, as ... » read more

The Early Bird Gets More Secure Hardware


I’m sure you’ve heard the expression “The early bird gets the worm.” This proverb emphasizes the importance of starting something early to maximize the potential outcome. In terms of hardware security, this idiom is spot on. Cybersecurity shouldn’t only be about protecting the software from attacks. Hardware is just as important. Cyberattacks continue to advance significantly, prog... » read more

Always On, Always At Risk


Always-on devices are everywhere, and each of them is a potential target for hackers. While many people associate always-on devices with smart speakers such as an Amazon Alexa or Google Home, or a connected security camera, that's only one component in a system. There's a broader infrastructure behind those devices. So even if you power down a digital assistant/smart speaker, everything it's... » read more

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