On Preventing and Mitigating Cache Based Side-Channel Attacks on AES System in Virtualized Environments

Abstract

Cloud computing aims to cut costs through a reduction in spending on equipment, infrastructure, and software by applying the multi-tenancy feature. Despite all the benefits of multi-tenancy, it is still a source of risk in cloud computing. Cloud adoption may be hampered by security concerns if suitable cloud-based security solutions are not available. Moreover, virtualization that enables multi-tenancy, considered one of the main components of a cloud, introduces major security risks and does not offer appropriate isolation between different instances running on the same physical machine. In this paper, we present a preliminary idea that may support the development of new countermeasures for a particular type of threat, namely cache-based side-channel attacks that target cache memories in virtualized environments. Attackers specifically target virtual machines in this type of attack to create many side channels and gather sensitive data. Additionally, this research offers preliminary concepts to aid in developing of solutions or defenses that enable us to identify unusual activity that could point to attacks associated with multi-tenancy, as well as security measures that preserve the benefits of multi-tenancy while lowering security concerns.