Academic researchers have recently developed a low-cost hardware module that can bypass microprocessor-level data security measures, posing a significant threat to confidential computing protections. This breakthrough, known as the “Battering RAM” attack, allows for the extraction of sensitive data from cloud servers with just physical access to the system’s motherboard. The team behind this innovation will be presenting their findings at Black Hat Europe 2025, shedding light on the vulnerabilities in current memory encryption defenses.
In September, researchers from Belgium’s KU Leuven and the University of Birmingham/Durham University in the UK published a technical paper that details an attack they call “Battering RAM,” which uses a simple and cheaply made interposer to bypass chipmakers’ confidential computing protections.
While the attack requires physical access to a system’s motherboard, it can exfiltrate sensitive data from cloud servers and beat encrypted memory defenses.
The team will present its research in a Black Hat Europe 2025 session next month and discuss how the attack vector puts cloud providers and their customers’ data at risk.
In an interview with Dark Reading, two members of the research team explain how encrypted memory protections aren’t as strong as they used to be – and why performance tradeoffs are to blame.
Continue reading this article in Dark Reading, a DCN partner site
