DF-SCA: Dynamic Frequency Side Channel Attacks are Practical
Published in Proceedings of the 38th Annual Computer Security Applications Conference (ACSAC '22), 2022
Modern CPUs continuously adjust their operating frequency to balance performance and power consumption. In this paper, we demonstrate that these frequency fluctuations are observable from unprivileged user space and constitute a practical side channel. DF-SCA requires no high-resolution timers, no special permissions, and no hardware performance counters, making it applicable in highly restricted environments. We demonstrate keystroke inference, website fingerprinting, and cross-VM attacks using this channel across Intel, AMD, and ARM platforms.
Recommended citation: D. R. Dipta and Berk Gulmezoglu, "DF-SCA: Dynamic Frequency Side Channel Attacks are Practical," Proceedings of the 38th Annual Computer Security Applications Conference (ACSAC '22), Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 841–853, 2022.
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