"'Hot Pixel' Attack Steals Data From Apple, Intel, Nvidia, and AMD Chips via Frequency, Power and Temperature Info"
By monitoring chip temperature, power, and frequency during normal operation, a team of security researchers, with funding from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and the US Air Force, was able to steal data from Arm CPUs from Apple and Qualcomm, discrete GPUs from Nvidia and AMD, and integrated graphics in Intel and Apple chips. The attack requires data from the PC's internal power, temperature, and frequency sensors. Local user accounts without administrator privileges can access this information. The team's current attack method serves as a proof-of-concept (PoC). Data exfiltration rates are extremely low with the current method, and if a user had direct access to the system, as is required in this instance, they would likely target more straightforward attack surfaces. However, the researchers acknowledge that additional work could accelerate the process. In their paper titled "Hot Pixels: Frequency, Power, and Temperature Attacks on GPUs and Arm SoCs," the researchers demonstrate the side-channel attack, a form of attack that enables data exfiltration by measuring specific physical emissions of a computer. This article continues to discuss the demonstrated side-channel attack.