GPUHammer: First-Ever Rowhammer Attack Targeting NVIDIA GPUs

Researchers from the University of Toronto have unveiled the first successful Rowhammer attack on an NVIDIA GPU, specifically targeting the A6000 model equipped with GDDR6 memory.

Dubbed “GPUHammer” in some circles, this exploit builds on the decade-old Rowhammer vulnerability, traditionally associated with CPU-based DRAM like DDR and LPDDR.

The attack demonstrates how repeated access to adjacent memory rows can induce bit flips in nearby cells, potentially allowing unauthorized data corruption or privilege escalation.

NVIDIA has acknowledged the research, emphasizing that it reinforces existing mitigations rather than introducing new threats.

Research Exposes Vulnerabilities in GPU Memory

The study, conducted without System-Level Error-Correcting Code (SYS-ECC) enabled, highlights the risks in unmitigated environments but also confirms that activating SYS-ECC effectively neutralizes the vulnerability, underscoring the importance of robust memory protection in high-performance computing.

The Rowhammer phenomenon exploits the physical density of modern DRAM chips, where electrical interference from aggressive row activations can disturb ...