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Test KINGSTON Design-In DDR4 Memory:
Robust against Rowhammer Attacks

Cyber attacks via installed software - we counter this danger in our daily use of PCs, laptops and smartphones with up-to-date software updates and antivirus programs.

But what if the danger comes not from the software, but from the hardware?

Cyber attacks via installed DRAMs and DRAM modules. Serious security holes in these memories are currently shocking the hardware industry. The hackers use a bit error triggered by "hammering" to hijack the hardware.

Problem unsolved for 10 years

This DRAM Rowhammer principle has been known since 2012. It exploits the organization of DRAM memory cells into rows and columns. Through countless read accesses to alternating rows, so-called "hammering", attempts are made to cause the bits in neighboring memory cells to flip. Sooner or later, this leads to bit flips. Ever smaller DRAM structures and higher memory density increase the range of such an attack.

Built-in countermeasures are bypassed

At the IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy 2022, a paper entitled "Blacksmith: Scalable Rowhammering in the Frequency Domain" described a new rowhammer attack method. The authors succeeded in generating bit flips after a short time in 40 different working memories. The fuzzer thus effectively bypasses the built-in countermeasures, the so-called Target Row Refresh (TRR).

This would allow an attacker with normal user rights to attempt to overcome limits via manipulations in its memory area and flip bits in the system memory. Depending on the scenario, it is then possible, for example, to break out of a sandbox and execute custom code. Intentional system crashes or takeovers are also conceivable.

Blacksmith test with selected modules from the GLYN portfolio

How safe are our distributed industrial DRAM modules?
For this purpose, GLYN experts set up a special hardware environment with the "Blacksmith Rowhammer Fuzzer" software and tested GLYN memory modules for bit flips.

The clear test winner was the design-in memory modules from KINGSTON. These are specially developed for industrial requirements and differ significantly from the KINGSTON consumer series.

The result

The tested KINGSTON DDR4 8/16GB RAM is the only one that did not show any bit flips on all tested modules even after 8 hours of testing. With other manufacturers, this was partly already the case after 1 - 2 minutes.

Improve your protection against Rowhammer attacks by using a robust DDR4 memory from the KINGSTON Design-In series.

Let us advise you, talk to our specialists.