Rowhammer-test – Test DRAM for bit flips caused by the rowhammer problem (2015)

Re:Rowhammer-test – Test DRAM for bit flips caused by the ro... by masklinn on Sunday January 22, 2017 @12:25PM (#13456055)

It is not, at least for DDR3: "How Rowhammer Could Be Used to Exploit Weaknesses in Computer Hardware"[0] tested ECC and rowhammered it.

ECC can only reliably detect single and double-bit errors (in 64bit spans, and it can only correct single-bit errors), anything beyond that and detection is up to chance. ECC is a mitigation factor, but ultimately not a protection.

[0] http://www.thirdio.com/rowhammer.pdf

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Re:Rowhammer-test – Test DRAM for bit flips caused by the ro... by blockoperation on Sunday January 22, 2017 @12:41PM (#13456145)

ECC could also help to raise the alarm when you're under attack – the chances of flipping enough bits to evade ECC (and have them be the right bits to pull off your exploit) without getting a few detectable flips in the process must be quite slim.

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Re:Rowhammer-test – Test DRAM for bit flips caused by the ro... by msbarnett on Sunday January 22, 2017 @05:29PM (#13458007)

> ECC could also help to raise the alarm when you're under attack – the chances of flipping enough bits to evade ECC (and have them be the right bits to pull off your exploit) without getting a few detectable flips in the process must be quite slim.

I'd strongly suggest reading the linked paper. The upshot is: no, the chances are actually quite good that ECC won't save you by raising the alarm, because of the poor job most vendors do of surfacing ECC errors.

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Re:Rowhammer-test – Test DRAM for bit flips caused by the ro... by yuhong on Sunday January 22, 2017 @08:17PM (#13458897)

If you read the paper, you will notice that Micron is the worst here.

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