Researchers Find Way To Zap RSA Algorithm

alphadogg writes "Three University of Michigan computer scientists say they have found a way to exploit a weakness in RSA security technology used to protect everything from media players to smartphones and e-commerce servers. RSA authentication is susceptible, they say, to changes in the voltage supply to a private key holder. While guessing the 1,000-plus digits of binary code in a private key would take unfathomable hours, the researchers say that by varying electric current to a secured computer using an inexpensive purpose-built device they were able to stress out the computer and figure out the 1,024-bit private key in about 100 hours – all without leaving a trace. The researchers in their paper outline how they made the attack (PDF) on a SPARC system running Linux."

Comments

some ppl are seriously sick

[Anonymous Coward]

hackers these days are seriously sick, not long ago one guy dissolved chips and listened in on instructions right on die
now this, just take a look at that paper

sure the principle is simple, create condition that causes errors and incidentally more of the bits you have guessed the less errors you have etc etc etc

but seriously people who figure these things out and make them work... i question their sanity, brilliant but you have to be a mad scientist to achieve these things

Re:Changing the voltage supply req. HW access, rig

[daniel de graaf]

This attack is relevant when you are trying to extract the private key of something like a TPM, in order to defeat the DRM protections it is trying to provide, or decrypt the drive whose key it is holding.

Re:Changing the voltage supply req. HW access, rig

[metamatic]

Sadly, most DRM-crippled hardware isn't going to have the private keys inside. For example, the PS3 and Wii will only have the public keys in the hardware so that they can check signatures on code. The private keys will be on hardware somewhere inside Sony and Nintendo, and presumably carefully guarded from unauthorized access.