CAPEC-622: Electromagnetic Side-Channel Attack
In this attack scenario, the attacker passively monitors electromagnetic emanations that are produced by the targeted electronic device as an unintentional side-effect of its processing. From these emanations, the attacker derives information about the data that is being processed (e.g. the attacker can recover cryptographic keys by monitoring emanations associated with cryptographic processing). This style of attack requires proximal access to the device, however attacks have been demonstrated at public conferences that work at distances of up to 10-15 feet. There have not been any significant studies to determine the maximum practical distance for such attacks. Since the attack is passive, it is nearly impossible to detect and the targeted device will continue to operate as normal after a successful attack.
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Overview
CAPEC-622 (Electromagnetic Side-Channel Attack) is a detailed-level attack pattern catalogued by MITRE in the Common Attack Pattern Enumeration and Classification (CAPEC). It describes a recurring method attackers use to exploit software weaknesses.
What the attacker needs
Prerequisites
- Proximal access to the device.
Skills required
- Medium skill: Sophisticated attack, but detailed techniques published in the open literature.
Consequences
What a successful CAPEC-622 attack can achieve.
Read Data
Affects: Confidentiality
Derive sensitive information about encrypted data. For mobile devices, depending on which keys are compromised, the attacker may be able to decrypt VOIP communications, impersonate the targeted caller, or access the enterprise VPN server.
How to mitigate it
Defenses that reduce the risk of CAPEC-622.
- Utilize side-channel resistant implementations of all crypto algorithms.
- Strong physical security of all devices that contain secret key information. (even when devices are not in use)
Frequently asked questions
Common questions about CAPEC-622.
- What is CAPEC-622?
- In this attack scenario, the attacker passively monitors electromagnetic emanations that are produced by the targeted electronic device as an unintentional side-effect of its processing. From these emanations, the attacker derives information about the data that is being processed (e.g. the attacker can recover cryptographic keys by monitoring emanations associated with cryptographic processing). This style of attack requires proximal access to the device, however attacks have been demonstrated at public conferences that work at distances of up to 10-15 feet. There have not been any significant studies to determine the maximum practical distance for such attacks. Since the attack is passive, it is nearly impossible to detect and the targeted device will continue to operate as normal after a successful attack.
- How do you prevent CAPEC-622?
- Utilize side-channel resistant implementations of all crypto algorithms.
- What weaknesses does CAPEC-622 target?
- CAPEC-622 exploits 1 CWE weakness, including CWE-201 (Insertion of Sensitive Information Into Sent Data).
- How severe is CAPEC-622?
- MITRE rates CAPEC-622 as Low severity.
References
Attack-pattern data is sourced from the MITRE CAPEC catalog (v3.9). Weakness associations link to the corresponding CWE entries on RadicalNotion.AI.
Defend against CAPEC-622
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