Analysis of Single-Event Effects in DDR3 and DDR3L SDRAMs Using Laser Testing and Monte-Carlo Simulations

Köhler, P.; Pouget, Vincent; Wrobel, Frédéric; Saigné, Frédéric; Wang, P. X.; Vassal, M. C.

doi:10.1109/tns.2017.2781145

Cited by 5 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…Using radioactive soruce i.e. (Ionizing Radiations) to produce SEUs such as bit-flips is not a novel idea per-se [16]- [18], [20], [26], [28]. Our paper makes an effort to understand the possibility to use such events as a potential source of exploitation or a source of harmful errors on quantum machines.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In a paper from 2005 of Franco et al [17] show how to generate soft errors in commercial SRAM with low energy neutrons produced at a clinical facility. With respect to SDRAM which is the most common memory used in COTS devices, a 2018 paper from Kohler et.al [16] shows that multiple kinds of errors (e.g. single-event effects (SEE), single bit upsets (SEUs), multiplebit upsets (MBUs), multiple cell upsets (MCUs), latch-up (SEL), and functional interrupt (SEFI).)…”

Section: Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In our case, which uses external radioactive sources, the position of a single bit may be smaller than a square nanometer. Researchers [16], [38] use lasers and Monte Carlo simulation to understand the precise location of an error. To this extent, Carmon et al [5] show how to recover memory content with photonic side channels, which can help to understand precise bit locations on a small budget.…”

Section: A Soft-error Hunting On Classical Computersmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A Sketch on how increase probability to shoot on target using lead shields SEUs per second (1 every 17 seconds on average), combined with RAM refresh rate (64ms), page table size and RAM constructive process, gave us approximately an average probability of 1% to shoot on target. More sophisticated techniques, such as lasers [16], [38] may lead to high probability or even deterministic success rate. It is also worth noting, as it is possible to evince from Figure 6 that all the SEUs were observed with the DUT as close as possible to the to the radioactive source.…”

Section: Preliminary Evaluation On Classical Hardwarementioning

confidence: 99%

“…In future, we aim to explore less harmful, cheaper and more deterministic sources of SEUs i.e., lasers [16], [38]. Which, are capable of generating SEUs with high precision on classical machines, allowing our attack to be deployed outside a protected facility.…”

Section: Future Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Deja-Vu: A Glimpse on Radioactive Soft-Error Consequences on Classical and Quantum Computations

Nappa,

Hobbs,

Lanzi

2021

Preprint

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What do Apple, the FBI and a Belgian politician have in common? In 2003, in Belgium there was an election using electronic voting machines. Mysteriously one candidate summed an excess of 4096 votes. An accurate analysis led to the official explanation that a spontaneous creation of a bit in position 13 of the memory of the computer attributed 4096 extra votes to one candidate. One of the most credited answers to this event is attributed to cosmic rays i.e.(gamma), which can filter through the atmosphere. Indeed, SEUs (single event upsets) such as bit-flips are frequent faults especially in outer space, where ionizing radiations are very frequent. For this reason many space capable devices mount very expensive and technically advanced memories, to reduce risks of malfunction, breakage, or exploit. On the other hand, at ground level, consumer devices aren't equipped with such memories for economic and statistical reasons. Indeed, research in the area shows that cosmic, highenergy rays filter inside the atmosphere on a daily basis. But when they hit our computers mostly they reach non-allocated space and systems do not notice their effects. There are cases though, with classical computers, like forensic investigations, or system recovery where such soft-errors may be helpful to gain root privileges and recover data. In this paper we show preliminary results of using radioactive sources as a mean to generate bit-flips and exploit classical electronic computation devices. We used low radioactive emissions generated by Cobalt and Cesium and obtained bit-flips which made the program under attack crash. We also provide the first overview of the consequences of SEUs in quantum computers which are today used in production for protein folding optimization, showing potential impactful consequences. To the best of our knowledge we are the first to leverage SEUs for exploitation purposes which could be of great impact on classical and quantum computers.

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