Talk:Passive attack/Draft

There's another category of attack that I'm not sure how to handle. The attacker may not be active in the sense of forging messages etc. but he isn't just a passive listener either. Things like grabbing a password file for offline crack attempts, subjecting a smartcard to heat for differential fault analysis, et cetera. Where do we categorise these? do they need an article on the category? Is there a standard term? Sandy Harris 01:28, 4 November 2008 (UTC)

The term "passive-aggressive" comes to mind, but probably isn't standard. Sandy Harris 01:36, 4 November 2008 (UTC)

While there are individual techniques, I don't think there's a standard term. As you suggest, some are going after side channels, others are looking for key or passwords to get into the primary information flow, etc. No really elegant unifying term comes to mind, but you could probably group the techniques under communications intelligence, although some, if they are based on unintentional radiation (acoustic or electronic), blur into measurement and signature intelligence of different flavors.

If you are trying to identify rather than grab an information flow, the terminology gets even more complex. Using time domain analysis to recognize the "fist" of a specific Morse operator, for example, is radiofrequency MASINT. Now, if unintentional RF or other emissions identify the crypto device, that certainly is a much better cryptanalytic starting point than just having a bit stream. Howard C. Berkowitz 02:03, 4 November 2008 (UTC)

Known plaintext

When you say "he may read messages he is not supposed to see", does that include known plaintext? Howard C. Berkowitz 14:36, 16 April 2009 (UTC)

Related disciplines

You mention cryptanalysis in the last paragraph. Should Radiofrequency MASINT and Communications intelligence be mentioned for non-cryptanalytic approaches? Is, for example, TEMPEST a passive attack? (yes, I know TEMPEST is the defense against something else). Howard C. Berkowitz 15:26, 14 June 2010 (UTC)