Related papers: STBPU: A Reasonably Secure Branch Prediction Unit
Performance Monitor Unit (PMU) is a significant hardware module on the current processors, which counts the events launched by processor into a set of PMU counters. Ideally, the events triggered by instructions that are executed but the…
Side-channel attacks such as Spectre that utilize speculative execution to steal application secrets pose a significant threat to modern computing systems. While program transformations can mitigate some Spectre attacks, more advanced…
Recently discovered Spectre and meltdown attacks affects almost all processors by leaking confidential information to other processes through side-channel attacks. These vulnerabilities expose design flaws in the architecture of modern…
As spiking neural networks (SNNs) are deployed increasingly in real-world efficiency critical applications, the security concerns in SNNs attract more attention. Currently, researchers have already demonstrated an SNN can be attacked with…
Speculative execution is a hardware optimisation technique where a processor, while waiting on the completion of a computation required for an instruction, continues to execute later instructions based on a predicted value of the pending…
We introduce a new timing side-channel attack on Intel CPU processors. Our Frontal attack exploits timing differences that arise from how the CPU frontend fetches and processes instructions while being interrupted. In particular, we observe…
Recent study of adversarial attacks has revealed the vulnerability of modern deep learning models. That is, subtly crafted perturbations of the input can make a trained network with high accuracy produce arbitrary incorrect predictions,…
High-confidence computing relies on trusted instructional set architecture, sealed kernels, and secure operating systems. Cloud computing depends on trusted systems for virtualization tasks. Branch predictions and pipelines are essential in…
Recently exposed vulnerabilities reveal the necessity to improve the security of branch predictors. Branch predictors record history about the execution of different programs, and such information from different processes are stored in the…
Branch prediction is key to the performance of out-of-order processors. While the CBP-2016 winner TAGE-SC-L combines geometric-history tables, a statistical corrector, and a loop predictor, over half of its remaining mispredictions stem…
Spectre attacks and their many subsequent variants are a new vulnerability class affecting modern CPUs. The attacks rely on the ability to misguide speculative execution, generally by exploiting the branch prediction structures, to execute…
Modern computer processors use microarchitectural optimization mechanisms to improve performance. As a downside, such optimizations are prone to introducing side-channel vulnerabilities. Speculative loading of memory, called prefetching, is…
Branch prediction is a standard feature in most processors, significantly improving the run time of programs by allowing a processor to predict the direction of a branch before it has been evaluated. Current branch prediction methods can…
Major chip manufacturers have all introduced Multithreaded processors. These processors are used for running a variety of workloads. Efficient resource utilization is an important design aspect in such processors. Depending on the workload,…
Speculative execution attacks leverage the speculative and out-of-order execution features in modern computer processors to access secret data or execute code that should not be executed. Secret information can then be leaked through a…
We present uSpectre, a new class of transient execution attacks that exploit microcode branch mispredictions to transiently leak sensitive data. We find that many long-known and recently-discovered transient execution attacks, which were…
Backdoor attacks pose a severe threat to deep neural networks (DNNs) by implanting hidden backdoors that can be activated with predefined triggers to manipulate model behaviors maliciously. Recent studies have extended backdoor attacks to…
Computer systems often provide hardware support for isolation mechanisms like privilege levels, virtual memory, or enclaved execution. Over the past years, several successful software-based side-channel attacks have been developed that…
Modern branch predictors predict the vast majority of conditional branch instructions with near-perfect accuracy, allowing superscalar, out-of-order processors to maximize speculative efficiency and thus performance. However, this…
Vulnerabilities severely threaten software systems, making the timely application of security patches crucial for mitigating attacks. However, software vendors often silently patch vulnerabilities with limited disclosure, where Security…