Related papers: MProtect: Operating System Memory Management witho…

Timing-based side and covert channels in processor caches continue to be a threat to modern computers. This work shows for the first time a systematic, large-scale analysis of Arm devices and the detailed results of attacks the processors…

Oblivious RAM (ORAM) hides the memory access patterns, enhancing data privacy by preventing attackers from discovering sensitive information based on the sequence of memory accesses. The performance of ORAM is often limited by its inherent…

Memory Protection Keys for Userspace (PKU) is a recent hardware feature that allows programs to assign virtual memory pages to protection domains, and to change domain access permissions using inexpensive, unprivileged instructions. Several…

A common security architecture, called the permission-based security model (used e.g. in Android and Blackberry), entails intrinsic risks. For instance, applications can be granted more permissions than they actually need, what we call a…

To improve efficiency, nearly all parallel processing units (CPUs and GPUs) implement relaxed memory models in which memory operations may be re-ordered, i.e., executed out-of-order. Prior testing work in this area found that memory…

ARM Memory Tagging Extension (MTE) is a new hardware feature introduced in ARMv8.5-A architecture, aiming to detect memory corruption vulnerabilities. The low overhead of MTE makes it an attractive solution to mitigate memory corruption…

Cloud applications expose - besides service endpoints - also potential or actual vulnerabilities. Therefore, cloud security engineering efforts focus on hardening the fortress walls but seldom assume that attacks may be successful. At least…

Current trends in technology, such as cloud computing, allow outsourcing the storage, backup, and archiving of data. This provides efficiency and flexibility, but also poses new risks for data security. It in particular became crucial 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…

The widespread adoption of embedded systems has led to their deployment in critical real-world applications, making them attractive targets for malicious actors. These devices face unique challenges in mitigating vulnerabilities due to…

Typically, a memory request from a processor may need to go through many intermediate interconnect routers, directory node, owner node, etc before it is finally serviced. Current multiprocessors do not give preference to any particular…

Device-independent quantum cryptographic schemes aim to guarantee security to users based only on the output statistics of any components used, and without the need to verify their internal functionality. Since this would protect users…

Attackers willing to compromise computing systems can use malicious peripherals as an attack vector, threatening users that cannot verify the hardware's authenticity. To address this problem, our work uses the Security Protocol and Data…

Embedded systems permeate through nearly all aspects of modern society. From cars to refrigerators to nuclear refineries, securing these systems has never been more important. Intrusions, such as the Stuxnet malware which broke the…

Modern society is getting accustomed to the Internet of Things (IoT) and Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) for a variety of applications that involves security-critical user data and information transfers. In the lower end of the spectrum, these…

Embedded and Internet-of-Things (IoT) devices play a critical role in modern life. Their software and firmware, often developed in memory-unsafe languages like C, are susceptible to memory safety vulnerabilities that can lead to…

The kernels of operating systems such as Windows, Linux, and MacOS are vulnerable to control-flow hijacking. Defenses exist, but many require efficient intra-address-space isolation. Execute-only memory, for example, requires read…

The growing adoption of Large Language Models (LLMs) has influenced the development of Small Language Models (SLMs) for on-device deployment across smartphones and edge devices, offering enhanced privacy, reduced latency, server-free…

HPC systems traditionally allow their users unrestricted use of their internal network. While this network is normally controlled enough to guarantee privacy without the need for encryption, it does not provide a method to authenticate peer…

Data exfiltration attacks have led to huge data breaches. Recently, the Equifax attack affected 147M users and a third-party library - Apache Struts - was alleged to be responsible for it. These attacks often exploit the fact that sensitive…