News by Faculty
Daniel Genkin
Wired: August 6, 2021
Hacker lexicon: what is a side channel attack?
Computers constantly give off more information than you might realize—which hackers can use to pry out their secrets. Prof. Dan Genkin gives perspective to Wired.Hacking reality
Microphones that “hear” light; microprocessors that “tell” us secrets; self-driving cars that “see” fake objects; sensors that “feel” the wrong temperature. Our devices are under attack in new, increasingly sophisticated ways. Security researchers at CSE are exploring the limits of hardware and finding new, sobering vulnerabilities in our computers and homes.
Major side-channel discovery wins NSA contest
The winning paper broke open a new area of investigation in hardware-based data leaks.
National Security Agency Central Security Service: November 30, 2020
Winner of NSA’s 8th Annual Best Scientific Cybersecurity Research Paper Competition
The National Security Agency’s Research Directorate selected “Spectre Attacks: Exploiting Speculative Execution” as the winner of its 8th Annual Best Cybersecurity Research Paper competition. Prof. Daniel Genkin is one of the authors.CSE researchers report over $11M in research grants last quarter
The awards were distributed to 18 different primary investigators.
Wired: June 22, 2020
Hacker Lexicon: What Is a Side Channel Attack?
Prof. Daniel Genkin helps to explain why side channel attacks continue to happen in this article. Genkin has been involved in identifying a number of flaws that have been vulnerable to side channel attacks, enabling attacks such as the Meltdown, Spectre, RAMBleed, and Foreshadow attacks.IEEE security conference features six accepted papers from CSE researchers
The projects impact voting systems, physical sensors, integrated circuit fabrication, and multiple microarchitectural side-channel vulnerabilities.
Wired: January 27, 2020
Intel Is Patching the Patch for the Patch for Its ‘Zombieload’ Flaw
A research team from Michigan and University of Adelaide has identified a new microarchitectural attack that is capable of bypassing the buffer overwrite countermeasures in INtel’s flagship processors.SmarterEveryDay: January 6, 2020
Breaking Into a Smart Home With A Laser – Smarter Every Day 229
Graduate student Ben Cyr demonstrates how his lab was able to hack into smart speakers with a laser.
Michigan Daily: November 22, 2019
‘U’ researchers find way to hack into virtual assistants with lasers
Researchers including Profs. Kevin Fu and Daniel Genkin were able to take control of virtual assistants using only light.Ars Technica: November 5, 2019
Siri, Alexa, and Google Home can be controlled with lasers, new research shows
MEMS mics respond to light as if it were sound, discovered by a team including Profs. Kevin Fu and Dan GenkinResearchers take control of Siri, Alexa, and Google Home with lasers
The newly discovered microphone vulnerability allows attackers to remotely inject inaudible and invisible commands into voice assistants using light.
Year of vulnerability hunting uncovers potential attacks on Intel Chips, RAM
All three of these attacks put users’ privacy at risk, exploiting new routes to sensitive data.Three papers chosen as IEEE Micro Top Picks
Top Picks is an annual special edition of IEEE Micro magazine that acknowledges the 10-12 most significant research papers.
Ars Technica: June 11, 2019
Researchers use Rowhammer bit flips to steal 2048-bit crypto key
RAMBleed side-channel attack, discovered in part by Michigan researchers, works even when DRAM is protected by error-correcting code.Ars Technica: May 14, 2019
New speculative execution bug leaks data from Intel chips’ internal buffers
Intel-specific vulnerability was found by researchers including Prof. Daniel Genkin’s group, calling their discovery of the attack Fallout.Intel processor vulnerability could put millions of PCs at risk
Patches can provide protection.