• Home
  • Cyber Crime
  • Cyber warfare
  • APT
  • Data Breach
  • Deep Web
  • Digital ID
  • Hacking
  • Hacktivism
  • Intelligence
  • Internet of Things
  • Laws and regulations
  • Malware
  • Mobile
  • Reports
  • Security
  • Social Networks
  • Terrorism
  • ICS-SCADA
  • POLICIES
  • Contact me
MUST READ

Law enforcement operations seized BlackSuit ransomware gang’s darknet sites

 | 

Arizona woman sentenced for aiding North Korea in U.S. IT job fraud scheme

 | 

Operation CargoTalon targets Russia’s aerospace with EAGLET malware,

 | 

Unpatched flaw in EoL LG LNV5110R cameras lets hackers gain Admin access

 | 

Koske, a new AI-Generated Linux malware appears in the threat landscape

 | 

Mitel patches critical MiVoice MX-ONE Auth bypass flaw

 | 

Coyote malware is first-ever malware abusing Windows UI Automation

 | 

SonicWall fixed critical flaw in SMA 100 devices exploited in Overstep malware attacks

 | 

DSPM & AI Are Booming: $17.87B and $4.8T Markets by 2033

 | 

Stealth backdoor found in WordPress mu-Plugins folder

 | 

U.S. CISA adds CrushFTP, Google Chromium, and SysAid flaws to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog

 | 

U.S. CISA urges FCEB agencies to fix two Microsoft SharePoint flaws immediately and added them to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog

 | 

Sophos fixed two critical Sophos Firewall vulnerabilities

 | 

French Authorities confirm XSS.is admin arrested in Ukraine

 | 

Microsoft linked attacks on SharePoint flaws to China-nexus actors

 | 

Cisco confirms active exploitation of ISE and ISE-PIC flaws

 | 

SharePoint under fire: new ToolShell attacks target enterprises

 | 

CrushFTP zero-day actively exploited at least since July 18

 | 

Hardcoded credentials found in HPE Aruba Instant On Wi-Fi devices

 | 

MuddyWater deploys new DCHSpy variants amid Iran-Israel conflict

 | 
  • Home
  • Cyber Crime
  • Cyber warfare
  • APT
  • Data Breach
  • Deep Web
  • Digital ID
  • Hacking
  • Hacktivism
  • Intelligence
  • Internet of Things
  • Laws and regulations
  • Malware
  • Mobile
  • Reports
  • Security
  • Social Networks
  • Terrorism
  • ICS-SCADA
  • POLICIES
  • Contact me
  • Home
  • Breaking News
  • Hacking
  • SgxPectre attack allows to reveal the content of the SGX enclave

SgxPectre attack allows to reveal the content of the SGX enclave

Pierluigi Paganini March 05, 2018

A group of researchers from the Ohio State University has discovered a new variation of the Spectre attack named SgxPectre that allows to reveal the content of the SGX enclave.

A group of researchers from the Ohio State University has discovered a new variation of the Spectre attack named SgxPectre.

Intel Software Guard eXtensions (SGX) is a technology for application developers that allows protecting select code and data from disclosure or modification. The Intel SGX allows application code executing within an Intel SGX enclave, which are protected areas of execution in memory.

We have a long debated both Spectre and Meltdown vulnerabilities in Intel processors and the way to exploit them.

The Meltdown attack could allow attackers to read the entire physical memory of the target machines stealing credentials, personal information, and more.

The Meltdown exploits the speculative execution to breach the isolation between user applications and the operating system, in this way any application can access all system memory.

The Spectre attack allows user-mode applications to extract information from other processes running on the same system. It can also be exploited to extract information from its own process via code, for example, a malicious JavaScript can be used to extract login cookies for other sites from the browser’s memory.

The Spectre attack breaks the isolation between different applications, allowing to leak information from the kernel to user programs, as well as from virtualization hypervisors to guest systems.

While the exploitation of Meltdown or  Spectre doesn’t allow attackers to extract data from SGX enclaves, the SgxPectre attack exploits the bugs in Intel CPU to reveal the content of the SGX enclave.

“SGXPECTRE Attacks that exploit the recently disclosed CPU bugs to subvert the confidentiality of SGX enclaves. Particularly, we show that when branch prediction of the enclave code can be influenced by programs outside the enclave, the control flow of the enclave program can be temporarily altered to execute instructions that lead to observable cache-state changes.” reads the paper published by the researchers. 

“An adversary observing such changes can learn secrets inside the enclave memory or its internal registers, thus completely defeating the confidentiality guarantee offered by SGX.”

According to the experts, almost any enclave program could be vulnerable to the SGXPECTRE attack.

SgxPectre Intel SGX enclave

The attack SgxPectre leverages on specific code patterns in software libraries that allow developers to add SGX support to their application. Desired code patterns are available in most SGX runtimes, including Intel SGX SDK, Rust-SGX, and Graphene-SGX.

Basically, the SgxPectre is a cache side-channel attack against enclave programs.

The researchers explained that their attack is based on the observation of the repetitive code execution patterns that the software development kits introduce in SGX enclaves and the associated variation in the cache size.

“In particular, because vulnerable code patterns exist in most SGX runtime libraries (e.g., Intel SGX SDK, Rust-SGX, Graphene-SGX) and are difficult to be eliminated, the adversary could perform SGXPECTRE Attacks against any enclave programs.” continues the paper.

“We demonstrate end-to-end attacks to show that the adversary could learn the content of the enclave memory, as well as its register values in such attacks”

Intel plans to address SgxPectre with a security update for the Intel SGX SDK that will be released on March 16.

Developers will need to update their application by using the new SDK version.

The experts released a video PoC of the attack while the PoC code was published on GitHub.

[adrotate banner=”9″] [adrotate banner=”12″]

Pierluigi Paganini

(Security Affairs – SgxPectre, Intel SGX enclave)

[adrotate banner=”5″]

[adrotate banner=”13″]


facebook linkedin twitter

Hacking Intel SGX Meltdown Pierluigi Paganini Security Affairs SgxPectre Spectre

you might also like

Pierluigi Paganini July 26, 2025
Law enforcement operations seized BlackSuit ransomware gang’s darknet sites
Read more
Pierluigi Paganini July 26, 2025
Arizona woman sentenced for aiding North Korea in U.S. IT job fraud scheme
Read more

leave a comment

newsletter

Subscribe to my email list and stay
up-to-date!

    recent articles

    Law enforcement operations seized BlackSuit ransomware gang’s darknet sites

    Cyber Crime / July 26, 2025

    Arizona woman sentenced for aiding North Korea in U.S. IT job fraud scheme

    Intelligence / July 26, 2025

    Operation CargoTalon targets Russia’s aerospace with EAGLET malware,

    Intelligence / July 25, 2025

    Unpatched flaw in EoL LG LNV5110R cameras lets hackers gain Admin access

    Security / July 25, 2025

    Koske, a new AI-Generated Linux malware appears in the threat landscape

    Malware / July 25, 2025

    To contact me write an email to:

    Pierluigi Paganini :
    pierluigi.paganini@securityaffairs.co

    LEARN MORE

    QUICK LINKS

    • Home
    • Cyber Crime
    • Cyber warfare
    • APT
    • Data Breach
    • Deep Web
    • Digital ID
    • Hacking
    • Hacktivism
    • Intelligence
    • Internet of Things
    • Laws and regulations
    • Malware
    • Mobile
    • Reports
    • Security
    • Social Networks
    • Terrorism
    • ICS-SCADA
    • POLICIES
    • Contact me

    Copyright@securityaffairs 2024

    We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. By clicking “Accept All”, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies. However, you may visit "Cookie Settings" to provide a controlled consent.
    Cookie SettingsAccept All
    Manage consent

    Privacy Overview

    This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities...
    Necessary
    Always Enabled
    Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
    Non-necessary
    Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
    SAVE & ACCEPT