# Supporting Rowhammer research to protect the DRAM ecosystem

DevFeed: [Supporting Rowhammer research to protect the DRAM ecosystem](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/supporting-rowhammer-research-to-protect-the-dram-ecosystem-19802.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<http://security.googleblog.com/2025/09/supporting-rowhammer-research-to.html>)

Author: Kimberly Samra (noreply@blogger.com)

Published: 2025-09-15T17:01:00Z

Content type: article

Language: en

Sources: [Google Online Security](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/google-online-security.md>)

Topics: [Hardware](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/hardware.md>), [Vulnerabilities](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/vulnerabilities.md>), [ddr5](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/ddr5.md>), [Google](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/google.md>), [Security](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/security.md>)

Tags: [ddr5](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/ddr5.md>), [dram](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/dram.md>), [google](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/google.md>), [hardware](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/hardware.md>), [none](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/none.md>), [research](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/research.md>), [rowhammer](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/rowhammer.md>), [security](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/security.md>), [vulnerabilities](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/vulnerabilities.md>)

## AI overview

Google describes Rowhammer as a DRAM hardware vulnerability in which repeated access to memory rows can cause bit flips in adjacent rows. The article explains the security risks, discusses mitigations such as ECC and Target Row Refresh for DDR5, and outlines Google-supported research and test platforms intended to improve defenses.

## Source excerpt

Posted by Daniel Moghimi Rowhammer is a complex class of vulnerabilities across the industry. It is a hardware vulnerability in DRAM where repeatedly accessing a row of memory can cause bit flips in adjacent rows, leading to data corruption. This can be exploited by attackers to gain unauthorized access to data, escalate privileges, or cause denial of service. Hardware vendors have deployed various mitigations, such as ECC and Target Row Refresh (TRR) for DDR5 memory, to mitigate Rowhammer and enhance DRAM reliability. However, the resilience of those mitigations against sophisticated attackers remains an open question. To address this gap and help the ecosystem with deploying robust defenses, Google has supported academic research and developed test platforms to analyze DDR5 memory. Our effort has led to the discovery of new attacks and a deeper understanding of Rowhammer on the current DRAM modules, helping to forge the way for further, stronger mitigations. What is Rowhammer? Rowhammer exploits a vulnerability in DRAM. DRAM cells store data as electrical charges, but these electric charges leak over time, causing data corruption. To prevent data loss, the memory controller periodically refreshes the cells. However, if a cell discharges before the refresh cycle, its stored bit may corrupt. Initially considered a reliability issue, it has been leveraged by security researchers to demonstrate privilege escalation attacks. By repeatedly accessing a memory row, an attacker can cause bit flips in neighboring rows. An adversary can exploit Rowhammer via: Reliably cause bit flips by repeatedly accessing adjacent DRAM rows. Coerce other applications or the OS into using these vulnerable memory pages. Target security-sensitive code or data to achieve privilege escalation. Or simply corrupt system's memory to cause denial of service. Previous work has repeatedly demonstrated the possibility of such attacks from software [Revisiting rowhammer, Are we susceptible to rowhammer