From: Hassan Wassel <hwassel@cs.ucsb.edu>

Project abstract:
Timing channel attacks were proposed to break cryptography
algorithms, like RSA. They exploit timing variability of certain
operations and try to correlate this variability to reveal some of
the key bits. Recently, micro-architecture attacks made use of the
non-deterministic execution time of modern architecture due to the
use of caches or branch predictors. In this project, I will study the
branch prediction attacks on RSA and evaluate some counter measures
on them, in terms of performance penalty and prevention of
information leakage through timing channel.

Hassan Wassel

PhD Student
Department of Computer Science,
University of California, Santa Barbara