cold boot attack definition

Definition of cold boot attack : noun

  1. A kind of side-channel attack in which an attacker with physical access to a device retrieves encryption keys after a cold reboot of the system. A computer is "cold booted" when its power is quickly cycled without the machine shutting down cleanly, or, in some cases, by hitting a reset on the device. See also data remanence.
"cold boot attack" on the Word Notes podcast.