A $50 'Battering RAM' Can Bust Confidential Computing
Researchers have demonstrated an attack that can break through modern Intel and AMD processor technologies that protect encrypted data stored in memory.
AMD designs processors and graphics hardware; flaws in their firmware, drivers, or platform security can expose systems to compromise.
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Background for this topic.
AMD is a semiconductor designer whose x86 CPUs, GPUs, accelerators, and embedded processors run PCs, servers, cloud hosts, and specialized systems. Their security depends on more than the silicon: CPU microcode, UEFI/BIOS firmware, device firmware, and platform components such as the AMD Secure Processor and virtualization extensions are also part of the attack surface.
AMD security advisories can cover speculative-execution flaws, firmware vulnerabilities, or weaknesses affecting virtualization and memory isolation. Exploitation may require local access or specific configurations, so impact depends on the processor, firmware, operating system, and workload. Defenders should track AMD and system-vendor advisories, identify affected CPU models, and deploy validated BIOS/UEFI, microcode, driver, and hypervisor updates. AMD Secure Encrypted Virtualization can reduce some risks from unauthorized host access to virtual-machine memory, but it does not replace guest hardening or protect every firmware and device path. Asset inventories and incident investigations should record processor and firmware versions when hardware-level issues are relevant.
Researchers have demonstrated an attack that can break through modern Intel and AMD processor technologies that protect encrypted data stored in memory.
A group of academics from KU Leuven and the University of Birmingham has demonstrated a new vulnerability called Battering RAM to bypass the latest defenses on Intel and AMD cloud processors