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CVE-2021-42114 Detail

Description

Modern DRAM devices (PC-DDR4, LPDDR4X) are affected by a vulnerability in their internal Target Row Refresh (TRR) mitigation against Rowhammer attacks. Novel non-uniform Rowhammer access patterns, consisting of aggressors with different frequencies, phases, and amplitudes allow triggering bit flips on affected memory modules using our Blacksmith fuzzer. The patterns generated by Blacksmith were able to trigger bitflips on all 40 PC-DDR4 DRAM devices in our test pool, which cover the three major DRAM manufacturers: Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron. This means that, even when chips advertised as Rowhammer-free are used, attackers may still be able to exploit Rowhammer. For example, this enables privilege-escalation attacks against the kernel or binaries such as the sudo binary, and also triggering bit flips in RSA-2048 keys (e.g., SSH keys) to gain cross-tenant virtual-machine access. We can confirm that DRAM devices acquired in July 2020 with DRAM chips from all three major DRAM vendors (Samsung, SK Hynix, Micron) are affected by this vulnerability. For more details, please refer to our publication.


Metrics

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CVSS 4.0 Severity and Vector Strings:

NIST CVSS score
NIST: NVD
N/A
NVD assessment not yet provided.

References to Advisories, Solutions, and Tools

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Hyperlink Resource
https://comsec.ethz.ch/research/dram/blacksmith/ Exploit  Third Party Advisory 
https://comsec.ethz.ch/research/dram/blacksmith/ Exploit  Third Party Advisory 
https://comsec.ethz.ch/wp-content/files/blacksmith_sp22.pdf Exploit  Third Party Advisory 
https://comsec.ethz.ch/wp-content/files/blacksmith_sp22.pdf Exploit  Third Party Advisory 
https://github.com/comsec-group/blacksmith Exploit  Third Party Advisory 
https://github.com/comsec-group/blacksmith Exploit  Third Party Advisory 

Weakness Enumeration

CWE-ID CWE Name Source
NVD-CWE-Other Other cwe source acceptance level NIST  
CWE-20 Improper Input Validation Switzerland Government Common Vulnerability Program  

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Change History

5 change records found show changes

Quick Info

CVE Dictionary Entry:
CVE-2021-42114
NVD Published Date:
11/16/2021
NVD Last Modified:
11/21/2024
Source:
Switzerland Government Common Vulnerability Program