Breaking The Encryption on Your Mobile Phone — Without Touching It

A paper presented at the USENIX Security Symposium outlined how RSA encryption keys can be cracked from the radio waves emitted by a mobile phone [here]:

Figure 1: One&Done

The researchers used the EM radiation emitted from the processor is it performs complex RSA calculations, and then used a timing attack to recover the private key. Figure 2 outlines the capture of the signal and the identification of the key parts of the signal which are gathered:

Figure 2: Signal analysis

It works without even knowing the actual ciphertext. This type of attack is known as a side-channel attack, and these types of attacks have been well-known in the industry to break encryption. Common side channel attack vectors include monitoring variations in the electrical power signal, and temperature levels, and have even included monitoring the sound emitted from a system.

In the past, the electromagnetic radiation has also been used to attack a range of devices including SIM card readers and mobile phones, but it…