Cache Timing Attack
Cache-timing attacks exploit the time difference between cache hits and misses in table-lookup cryptographic implementations to recover keys across processes.
Purpose
They threaten software AES implementations in cloud and multi-tenant environments and motivated replacing table lookups with AES-NI hardware instructions.
Mechanism
Using Prime+Probe or Flush+Reload, the attacker probes the victim’s cache-access patterns, infers the table-lookup indices (which depend on plaintext and key), and statistically recovers the key.
Use cases
- AES security in cloud environments
- Cross-VM side channels
- Software cryptography implementation assessment