Cold-Boot Attacks

Synonyms

Iceman attack

Related Concepts

Physical Security; Side-Channel Attacks

Definition

The cold-boot attack is a type of side-channel attack in which an attacker uses the phenomenon of memory remanence in DRAM or SRAM to read data out of a computer’s memory after the computer has been powered off.

Applications

A computer running cryptographic software relies on the operating system to protect any key material that may be in memory during computation. In a cold-boot attack, the attacker circumvents the operating system’s protections by reading the contents of memory directly out of RAM. This can be accomplished with physical access by removing power to the computer and either rebooting into a small custom kernel (a “cold boot”) or transplanting the RAM modules into a different computer to be read. In the latter case, the chips may be cooled to increase their data retention times using an inverted “canned air” duster sprayed directly onto the chips, or submerged in liquid nitrogen....