Re: Covert Channels

[daw () mozart cs berkeley edu (David Wagner)]

Jose Nazario  wrote:
> as an example, consider the timing attack on cryptography. you can roughly
> estimate the size of cryptographic keys by watching processor timings.

I wouldn't call that a covert channel; that's an inadvertent leakage.
Covert channels are where the leaker is maliciously attempting to
leak data.  In contrast, side channels in crypto are a case where the
leaker didn't intend to be malicious or to leak data, but inadvertently
let some data slip anyway.  Not all information leaks are covert channels.