Protecting Private Keys Against Memory Disclosure Attacks Using Hardware Transactional Memory

Explore a cutting-edge approach to safeguarding RSA private keys against memory disclosure attacks using Hardware Transactional Memory (HTM). Learn about Mimosa, an innovative service that encrypts private keys when idle and leverages HTM during cryptographic computations to ensure sensitive data remains protected. Discover how this technique prevents both software-based and physical memory attacks by keeping plaintext data confined to CPU-bound caches and automatically clearing sensitive information upon unauthorized access attempts. Gain insights into the implementation of Mimosa on commodity hardware, its effectiveness against various memory disclosure attacks, and its minimal performance impact. Delve into topics such as transactional memory, data tracking, confidentiality measures, and performance tuning in this comprehensive examination of advanced cryptographic key protection.