Timeless Timing Attacks: Exploiting Network Latency Without Measurement
Tom Van Goethem and Mathy Vanhoef introduce timeless timing attacks, using HTTP/2 multiplexing to measure microsecond server execution differences over high-jitter networks.
Summary
The Jitter Problem in Network Timing Attacks
Remote network timing attacks traditionally struggle over the Internet due to unpredictable network jitter and packet latency obscuring microsecond execution differences.
Introducing Timeless Timing Attacks
Tom Van Goethem and Mathy Vanhoef introduce a revolutionary paradigm: sending two concurrent requests inside a single HTTP/2 TCP packet to guarantee identical network transit times.
Measuring Execution Order on the Server
By observing which response the backend server returns first, an attacker determines which cryptographic or database query took longer, eliminating network jitter entirely.
Real-World Exploitation Across Web Applications
The authors demonstrate extracting cryptographic signatures, user existence oracles, and timing secrets across global Internet infrastructure without local network access.
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