Timing attack · WebGlossary.info

A side-channel attack in which the attacker attempts to compromise a cryptosystem by analyzing the time taken to execute cryptographic algorithms. Every logical operation in a computer takes time to execute, and the time can differ based on the input; with precise measurements of the time for each operation, an attacker can work backwards to the input. Finding secrets through timing information may be significantly easier than using cryptanalysis of known plaintext, ciphertext pairs. Timing attacks are often overlooked in the design phase because they are so dependent on the implementation and can be introduced unintentionally with compiler optimizations. Avoidance of timing attacks involves design of constant-time functions and careful testing of the final executable code. ← Wikipedia