The Big Picture: A Generic Model of Side-Channel Leaks

Abstract

The previous chapters have described in-depth studies of side channel leaks in different applications. Although those side channel leaks and their corresponding countermeasures all look very different, there in fact exists some commonality in terms of both challenges and solutions. For example, in previous chapters, we usually apply a similar idea for tacking side channel leaks, i.e., we divide objects into groups and then break the linkage inside each group by obfuscating any observable information about the objects, where objects are either published micro-data records, encrypted packets (sizes) in web applications, or readings reported by a smart meter. In this chapter, we design a general framework for preserving privacy against side-channel leaks. We show how different problems may fit into this framework by revisiting the three side channel leaks covered in previous chapters.