Improper Protection of Physical Side Channels

The device does not contain sufficient protection mechanisms to prevent physical side channels from exposing sensitive information due to patterns in physically observable phenomena such as variations in power consumption, electromagnetic emissions (EME), or acoustic emissions.

Physical side channels have been well-studied for decades in the context of breaking implementations of cryptographic algorithms or other attacks against security features. These side channels may be easily observed by an adversary with physical access to the device, or using a tool that is in close proximity. If the adversary can monitor hardware operation and correlate its data processing with power, EME, and acoustic measurements, the adversary might be able to recover of secret keys and data.

We track 3 vulnerabilities of this type. 100% are rated high or critical, and the average CVSS score is 8.8.

How this weakness is prevented

• Architecture and Design: Apply blinding or masking techniques to implementations of cryptographic algorithms.
• Implementation: Add shielding or tamper-resistant protections to the device to increase the difficulty of obtaining measurements of the side-channel.