I/O Attacks in Intel PC-based Architectures and Countermeasures

For a few years now, attacks involving I/O controllers have been subject to a growing interest. Unlocking smart phones and game consoles through USB connections, or bypassing authentication through Fire Wire are examples of such attacks. Our study focuses on I/O-based attacks targeting Intel PC-based information systems such as laptop or desktop computers. This paper provides a survey of such attacks and proposes a characterization and a classification of these attacks. Then, an overview of various techniques which mitigate the risks related to I/O attacks are described and their respective limitations are discussed. Finally, several I/O attacks we are currently investigating are presented.