10K feet view: Spying on passwords through memory systems

Course Contents
    The course comprises of four main modules apart from a module on preliminaries.
  • Module 0: Preliminaries on Caches, DRAM, and Virtual memory systems
  • (Depends on the dynamics of the class)

  • Module 1: Secure Caches
  • (i) Side-channel and covert-channel attacks at different levels of cache hierarchy

    (ii) Cache attack mitigation techniques

    (iii) Trade-off between system performance, power, and security

  • Module 2: Secure DRAMs
  • (i) Side-channel and covert-channel attacks at the DRAM controllers

    (ii) Side-channel and covert-channel attacks at the DRAM chips

    (iii) Attack mitigation techniques

  • Module 3: Secure Virtual Memory Systems
  • (i) Side/covert-channel attacks at the TLBs, MMU caches, Page-table walkers

    (ii) Mitigation techniques at different levels of virtual memory system

  • Module 4: Other Topics
  • (i) Reverse engineering memory systems

    (ii) Interface between secure memory system, secure processor, and secure OS. Intel SGX, ORAMs

    (iii) Security issues in NVMs

Guest Lectures