Rowhammering: a physical approach to gaining unauthorized access

As the information density of DRAM increases, the problems faced by natural decay and cell leakage have become increasingly prevalent. As cells become more closely packed they may leak their charge into adjacent cells, changing their state, and producing memory error. Researchers attempted to intentionally produce memory error by repeatedly accessing cell rows adjacent to each other, a technique which was later labeled rowhammering . Breakthroughs in research demonstrate working examples of a rowhammer used to exploit memory for unauthorized access. In this paper, I will describe various approaches to rowhammering, discuss potential approaches for protection, and will demonstrate some of the methods described herein