Re: Is a serial cable as good as thin air?

[Adam Back]

re. the use of a serial cable rather than an air gap / sneaker net
(floppy disk).

One thing that occurs is that if you were not careful the system might
be used to mount a timing attack against the back-end machine.  See
Paul Kocher's RSA timing attack.

Timing attacks may be possible without compromising the front end
machine, the a compromised front end machine might have advantages in
avoiding detection, or obtaining more accurate timing information.

Adam