Researchers have described the BadRAM attack, which is claimed to facilitate the breaching of processor security “via rogue memory modules” (h/t The Register). Specifically, the research team has outlined a successful attack on AMD’s cutting-edge Secure Encrypted Virtualization (SEV) using a $5 Raspberry Pi Pico connected to a DDR socket and powered by a 9V battery. That’s just $10 of hardware required to “erode trust in the cloud.”
The name BadRAM provides a sizable hint at the angle of attack used by the team of researchers from KU Leuven in Belgium, the University of Lübeck in Germany, and the University of Birmingham in the UK. On the succinct yet informative website set up to spread awareness of BadRAM, the team highlights how ‘rogue memory’ is a security threat that has been largely ignored, at least by AMD.
