FROST Technique Spies on User SSDs via Browser JavaScript
TL;DR. A new technique called FROST allows websites to covertly track browsing history and open applications by measuring SSD activity through simple browser JavaScript. - FROST exploits a side channel, specifically contention side channels, by timing I/O operations of a user's SSD from within the browser. - The method uses JavaScript interacting with the origin private file system (OPFS) and requires no user interaction beyond opening the malicious site. - Researchers used a pretrained convolutional neural network to analyze the timing data and infer user activity.
- The FROST technique enables covert website tracking by measuring SSD timing.
- It exploits contention side channels via in-browser JavaScript and OPFS.
- A convolutional neural network analyzes SSD data to infer user activity.