[Cryptography] Gaslighting ~= power droop == side channel attack

Chris Tonkinson chris at tonkinson.com
Tue Nov 29 15:31:46 EST 2016


On 11/29/2016 02:26 PM, Henry Baker wrote:
> At 04:36 AM 11/29/2016, Chris Tonkinson wrote:
>> From: Chris Tonkinson <chris at tonkinson.com>
>>
>> On 11/28/2016 07:54 PM, Christian Huitema wrote:
>>> On Monday, November 28, 2016 5:22 AM, Henry Baker wrote:
>>>> ...
>>>> "smart" thermostats will turn us into the secret energy police
>>>
>>> Smart power meters could do much more than that.  It turns out that various appliances can be recognized through their "power consumption signature".  A quick search of "appliance recognition" turns out a variety of research papers on how to do that, as well as projects to build data bases of appliance signatures.  The smart power meter of the future ought to be able to check not only when you are starting the dish washer, but what brand and what model you are using.  And of course, when the utility starts doing that, they will want to teach you what to use and when.
>>>
>>> -- Christian Huitema
>>
>> I wonder if some Simpleā„¢ device could be created based on a combiination
>> of battery, capacitor, and timer to smooth the "curves" of consumption
>> for a household (or on a smaller scale for specific appliances),
>> rendering this type of analysis ineffectual.
> 
> Well, in theory, any such *linear* function can be inverted to extract the original signal (with some added noise in the high frequencies), so simple smoothing won't really work.

  In this case "smoothing" was a poor choice of words, as it doesn't
necessarily have to mean "make more linear;" instead it simply means
"hide the variability."

  Suppose you charge a battery in anticipation of required energy usage
for some application. Charge it at regular intervals, and at a constant
rate. Overall power usage remains the same - but start adding multiple
appliances (e.g. an entire home) and the combinatorics of overall energy
consumption should prevent detailed analysis.

  Six months later "power laundering" devices will be outlawed :)

-Chris Tonkinson

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