- Jan 24, 2011
- 9,377
Researchers at Tel Aviv University in collaboration with Israel’s Technion institute have created a palm-sized radio device that can capture decryption keys from laptops sitting just almost half a meter away (19in).
The new side-channel attack functions without tethering against RSA and ElGamal implementations in GnuPG open source encryption software and it is possible by intercepting electromagnetic emanations from the CPU of the targeted mobile computer device.
Device can be hidden in a pita bread
The cost of the radio device has been estimated at $300 / €270 and it can be built with readily available components: a Rikomagic controller, a piece of wire acting as an antenna and a FUNcube software defined radio (SDR).
A more professional variant would also include a data storage card, batteries and a WiFi antenna for sending data wirelessly to the attacker’s machine.
However, the researchers also show how such as device can be made using components commonly found in a household (a plain consumer-grade radio receiver).
The gadget created by the researchers was dubbed PITA (short for Portable Instrument for Trace Acquisition), in reference to the fact that the device can be concealed inside a pita bread.
During the experiment, it was possible to extract decryption keys in just seconds when non-adaptive ciphertext choice was involved.
Read more: http://news.softpedia.com/news/chea...cryption-keys-from-nearby-laptop-485065.shtml
The new side-channel attack functions without tethering against RSA and ElGamal implementations in GnuPG open source encryption software and it is possible by intercepting electromagnetic emanations from the CPU of the targeted mobile computer device.
Device can be hidden in a pita bread
The cost of the radio device has been estimated at $300 / €270 and it can be built with readily available components: a Rikomagic controller, a piece of wire acting as an antenna and a FUNcube software defined radio (SDR).
A more professional variant would also include a data storage card, batteries and a WiFi antenna for sending data wirelessly to the attacker’s machine.
However, the researchers also show how such as device can be made using components commonly found in a household (a plain consumer-grade radio receiver).
The gadget created by the researchers was dubbed PITA (short for Portable Instrument for Trace Acquisition), in reference to the fact that the device can be concealed inside a pita bread.
During the experiment, it was possible to extract decryption keys in just seconds when non-adaptive ciphertext choice was involved.
Read more: http://news.softpedia.com/news/chea...cryption-keys-from-nearby-laptop-485065.shtml