Title:

Exploiting Dynamic Frequency: Side-Channel Attacks and Evasion in Modern Systems

 

Abstract:

The evolving hardware landscape continues to expose systems to sophisticated microarchitectural and side-channel attacks, despite ongoing efforts in patching and mitigation. In this talk, I will present recent advances in dynamic frequency-based side channels, introducing DF-SCA, a novel software-based attack that leverages Dynamic Voltage and Frequency Scaling (DVFS) to extract sensitive information such as website activity and keystroke patterns via accessible CPU frequency data on Linux and Android platforms. I will also demonstrate how similar techniques enable fingerprinting of containerized and sandboxed environments—including Docker, Google gVisor, AWS Firecracker, and TEEs like Intel SGX and AMD SEV—even in multi-tenant cloud settings. Finally, I will discuss methods to systematically evade machine learning-based detection mechanisms for microarchitectural attacks using a fuzzing-driven framework and outline potential defenses. This talk underscores the need for robust, hardware-aware security mechanisms in modern systems.

 

Speaker:

Debopriya Roy Dipta
PhD Candidate
Iowa State University
USA