Talk Details - Rowhammer bit flips a decade later

Title: Rowhammer bit flips a decade later

Speaker: Kaveh Razavi (ETH Zurich)

Schedule: 02.07.2026, [11:30 - 12:30]

Zoom link: tu-darmstadt.zoom-x.de/j/68642659617

Abstract: The first Rowhammer exploit was published a little more than a decade ago on a DDR3-based system. Since then, we have had two generations of DRAM technology with proprietary mitigations. In this talk, I present our journey in understanding the security guarantees of these mitigations in DDR4 and DDR5 devices through significant platform building efforts, painstaking reverse engineering, and creative system-level techniques. The results are not encouraging; DRAM is as insecure as a decade ago while the cost of independent security analysis is growing beyond what academia can do. I finish with a brief discussion of possible paths forward.

Biography: Kaveh is an associate professor at ETH Zurich where he leads the COMSEC group. Next to defensive work, he has been involved in the discovery of many high-profile security vulnerabilities in commodity DRAM and CPU chips. He is a proud owner of five Pwnies and many best/distinguished paper awards, including at Oakland, USENIX Security and MICRO.