How to Hack Encryption Keys using Compressed Air
Holding a compressed air can upside down creates extreme cooling of minus 50 degrees Celsius. Spray this on memory and the stored data fades five times slower than it would naturally. A full experiment conducted by Princeton exploits this little known property. “(Memory is) not immediately erased, and their contents remain for malicious (or forensic) acquisition of usable full-system memory images.”
- Check out the experiment’s research paper.
- Learn more though brief pictorial documentation.
- Watch the full demo video:
December 26th, 2008
Great video!
Seems like a (partial) fix to the exploit is to have the encryption program encrypt the key. The next question would be, would the encryption program’s key be just as vulnerable?
January 1st, 2009
Except the only problem I see with this is that the propellant chemicals in most canned air is extremely flammable. Last time I played with a can, an electric spark ignited the liquid part and I lost my eyebrows. Watch out for the flammable ones.
January 2nd, 2009
Yikes, thanks for the tip.