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this post was submitted on 18 Aug 2023
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Technology
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This sounds like a giant security risk?
Sounds more like a very small security risk, to me. For most people if someone steals their laptop it doesn't really matter what kind of RAM is in it.
If you're in some kind of high-security role then use a laptop with volatile RAM instead. Non-volatile will probably be more expensive than the old stuff for quite a while so it's not going anywhere.
Maybe, it depends how it works.
Memory is often unencrypted and/or contains encryption keys. Many programs rely on the assumption that it's cleared on powerdown for security.
Depending on how this memory enters the long term state it seems that a lot of legacy software might become vulnerable to a really simple attack.
Pulling the plug might no longer be something that forces someone to engage in rubber hose analysis.
In a world with ULTRARAM those programs will need to be rewritten to operate under new assumptions.
Sure of course of course but umm have you seen software?
There are still windows xp computers on the internet.
It's not insurmountable, and of course I have no idea if/how this will roll out.
Just it seems to mess with a rather deep assumption we have about how computers operate when we develop software and threat models.
The better example is that there are still programs compiled in Win 95 running here and there if I'm correct.
Sure, but anyone who's still running WindowsXP on their laptop wants to suffer.
As always, the security-minded will be able to secure their devices and everyone else will not care until it bites them. ULTRARAM isn't revolutionary in that regard.
Depends if the RAM is encrypted, and how secure the TPM is.
I admit to being out of the game for a while but how common is RAM encryption?
wouldn't the overhead violate half the point of RAM?
There's always a tradeoff in computing between security v/s performance/overhead, so the value of it depends on your threat model, and the attack vectors you're expecting.
Anyways, RAM encryption is generally "available" in various forms, depending on the mobo, CPU, software used etc, but it's not commonly enabled/used. Most AMD boards (at least, mid-range and above should) have an option in the BIOS to enable Secure Memory Encryption (SME). This allows the OS to selectively encrypt memory pages, making use of a hardware AES engine that sits outside of the CPU.
There's also Transparent SME (TSME), which encrypts the entire memory and works completely independent of the OS and software. Usually only high-end/workstation boards have this, and it also requires a Ryzen PRO CPU. TSME also has a much lower overhead, I recall reading somewhere it's something like only 5%.
I believe Intel also has something similar, but I never looked into it.
AMD have a whitepaper available with an overview on how this stuff works, if you're interested: https://www.amd.com/system/files/TechDocs/memory-encryption-white-paper.pdf