We are extremely honored to have received the Jean-Claude Laprie Award in Dependable Computing 2024 for our ISCA’14 paper: “Flipping bits in memory without accessing them: An experimental study of DRAM disturbance errors”.
“Our paper was published at ISCA 2014 ten years ago. It has had extensive influence on both industry (including memory, CPU, systems and testing companies) and academia across multiple communities, including computer architecture, hardware & systems security, dependable systems, reliability physics. Much progress has been made in the past 10 years, yet the technology scaling problems that lead to RowHammer and read disturbance bitflips remain to be solved (well) and memory robustness is an increasingly important issue. I am personally honored to receive such a long-term impact award that is named after a true pioneer in dependable computing systems.”, Onur Mutlu.
Onur Mutlu received the award, presented at DSN 2024 in Brisbane, Australia on June 26. His award talk covered a history and overview of the RowHammer problem, from 2011 to now, focusing broadly on problems, ideas, lessons and mistakes, and current research topics. RowHammer and other memory robustness issues continue to plague our systems, and there is a lot more to be discovered in the area.
Onur Mutlu, “RowHammer, RowPress & Beyond: Can We Be Free of Bitflips (Soon)?”, Jean-Claude Laprie Award Talk at DSN 2024, Brisbane, Australia, 26 June 2024. [Slides (pdf) (pptx)] [Talk Video] (premiere 11 July, 5PM CEST)
The Award Citation:
“Flipping bits in memory without accessing them: An experimental study of DRAM disturbance errors” by Yoongu Kim, Ross Daly, Jeremie Kim, Chris Fallin, Ji Hye Lee, Donghyuk Lee, Chris Wilkerson, Konrad Lai and Onur Mutlu, was the first paper to introduce, demonstrate, analyze, and propose solutions to DRAM row disturbance errors, later known as RowHammer. The solution proposed in the paper, PARA (Probabilistic Adjacent Row Activation), was incorporated by Intel and other CPU vendors, and is still one of the main ways to fix RowHammer. It took a while for the problem to be recognized by DRAM vendors, but eventually it led to significant efforts and investment into fixing it. On the research side, the paper had a strong impact by creating new research directions into DRAM security and RowHammer attacks and defenses, collecting an impressive number of citations over the last 10 years (1300+ citations). The paper also had an important impact on the dependability community at large by motivating others into looking at the reliability of general-purpose hardware and discovering other vulnerabilities, like Spectre and Meltdown. For these reasons, the award Committee decided to also select this paper as one of the 2024 JCL award winners”.
The Jean-Claude Laprie Award in Dependable Computing is awarded annually by the IFIP Working Group 10.4 on Dependable Computing and Fault Tolerance. It recognizes outstanding papers that have significantly influenced the theory and/or practice of Dependable Computing.
We would like to thank DSN and the award committee members of the IFIP Working Group 10.4 on Dependable Computing and Fault Tolerance for this honor.
DSN news item: https://www.dependability.org/?p=839
Yoongu Kim, Ross Daly, Jeremie Kim, Chris Fallin, Ji Hye Lee, Donghyuk Lee, Chris Wilkerson, Konrad Lai, and Onur Mutlu, “Flipping Bits in Memory Without Accessing Them: An Experimental Study of DRAM Disturbance Errors”, Proceedings of the 41st International Symposium on Computer Architecture (ISCA), Minneapolis, MN, June 2014.
[Slides (pptx) (pdf)] [Lightning Session Slides (pptx) (pdf)] [Source Code and Data] [RowHammer Summary Slides (pptx)] [RowHammer Summary]
[Coverage on ZDNet 1] [Coverage on ZDNet 2] [MemTest86 Hammer Test] [RowHammer Discussion Group] [Discussion on Twitter]
[Lecture Video (1 hr 49 mins), 25 September 2020]
[Invited Retrospective at IEEE TCAD Top Picks in Hardware and Embedded Security, 2019 (pdf)]
[Invited Retrospective at 50 Years of ISCA, 2023 (pdf)]
One of the 7 papers of 2012-2017 selected as Top Picks in Hardware and Embedded Security for IEEE TCAD (link).
Selected to the ISCA-50 25-Year Retrospective Issue covering 1996-2020 in 2023 (Retrospective (pdf) Full Issue).
You can read more about RowHammer and our work in a recent news item honoring our 2022 Google Security and Privacy Research Award: https://safari.ethz.ch/2022-google-security-and-privacy-research-award/
Related Resources:
Selected Talk and Lecture recordings:
Onur Mutlu, “RowHammer, RowPress & Beyond: Can We Be Free of Bitflips (Soon)?”, University of California Berkeley, 28 February 2024. [Slides (pptx) (pdf)] [Talk Video]
Onur Mutlu, “RowHammer, RowPress & Beyond: Can We Be Free of Bitflips (Soon)?”, North Carolina State University (NCSU), 16 February 2024. [Slides (pptx) (pdf)] [Talk Video]
Onur Mutlu, “RowHammer, RowPress & Beyond: Can We Be Free of Bitflips (Soon)?”, New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT), 18 December 2023. [Slides (pptx) (pdf)] [Talk Video]
Onur Mutlu, “RowHammer, RowPress & Beyond: Can We Be Free of Bitflips (Soon)?”, Dagstuhl MAD (Microarchitectural Attacks & Defenses), 30 November 2023. [Slides (pptx) (pdf)]
Onur Mutlu, “RowHammer, RowPress & Beyond : Can We Be Free of Bitflips (Soon)?”, Google Zurich Hardware Security Summit, 15 November 2023. [Slides (pptx) (pdf)] [Talk Video]
Onur Mutlu, “RowHammer, RowPress and Beyond: Can We Be Free of Bitflips (Soon)?”, Stanford University Computer Systems Seminar, 26 October 2023. [Slides (pptx) (pdf)] [Talk Video]
Onur Mutlu, “RowHammer, RowPress & Beyond : Can We Be Free of Bitflips (Soon)?”, Meta, 28 September 2023. [Slides (pptx) (pdf)]
Onur Mutlu, “Security Aspects of DRAM: The Story of RowHammer”, Invited Tutorial at 14th IEEE Electron Devices Society International Memory Workshop (IMW), Dresden, Germany, May 2022. [Slides (pptx)(pdf)] [Tutorial Video (57 minutes)]
Onur Mutlu, “The Story of RowHammer”, Invited Talk at the Workshop on Robust and Safe Software 2.0 (RSS2), held with the 27th International Conference on Architectural Support for Programming Languages and Operating Systems (ASPLOS), Virtual, 28 February 2022. [Slides (pptx) (pdf)] [Talk Video]
Onur Mutlu, “The Story of RowHammer”, Keynote Talk at Secure Hardware, Architectures, and Operating Systems Workshop (SeHAS), held with HiPEAC 2021 Conference, Virtual, 19 January 2021. [Slides (pptx) (pdf)] [Talk Video (1 hr 15 minutes, with Q&A)] [Related Survey Paper from IEEE TCAD 2019]
Seminar in Computer Architecture, Spring 2023, ETH Zurich
Lecture 4: RowHammer
Computer Architecture Fall 2020, ETH Zurich
Lecture 4b RowHammer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDy632z23UE
Lecture 5a TRRespass: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwRw7QqK_qA
Lecture 5b Revisiting RowHammer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gR7XR-Eepcg
SAFARI Source Code to Induce Errors in Modern DRAM Chips (June 2014)
https://github.com/CMU-SAFARI/rowhammer
Google Project Zero’s Attack to Take Over a System (March 2015)
Exploiting the DRAM rowhammer bug to gain kernel privileges (Seaborn+, 2015)
https://github.com/google/rowhammer-test
Double-sided Rowhammer
Selected Papers on RowHammer:
Ataberk Olgun, Yahya Can Tugrul, Nisa Bostanci, Ismail Emir Yuksel, Haocong Luo, Steve Rhyner, Abdullah Giray Yaglikci, Geraldo F. Oliveira, and Onur Mutlu,“ABACuS: All-Bank Activation Counters for Scalable and Low Overhead RowHammer Mitigation”, Proceedings of the 33rd USENIX Security Symposium (USENIX Security), August 2024. [arXiv version] [ABACuS Source Code]
Haocong Luo, İsmail Emir Yüksel, Ataberk Olgun, Giray Yaglikci, Mohammad Sadrosadati and Onur Mutlu, “An Experimental Analysis of Combined RowHammer and RowPress Read Disturbance in Modern DRAM Chips”, Proceedings of the 54th Annual IEEE/IFIP International Conference on Dependable Systems and Networks (DSN), July 2024. [arXiv version]
Ataberk Olgun, Majd Osseiran, Abdullah Giray Yaglikci, Yahya Can Tugrul, Haocong Luo, Steve Rhyner, Behzad Salami, Juan Gomez Luna, Onur Mutlu, “Read Disturbance in High Bandwidth Memory: A Detailed Experimental Study on HBM2 DRAM Chips”, Proceedings of the 54th Annual IEEE/IFIP International Conference on Dependable Systems and Networks (DSN), July 2024. [arXiv version] [HBM Read Disturbance Source Code]
Haocong Luo, Ataberk Olgun, A. Giray Yağlıkçı, Yahya Can Tuğrul, Steve Rhyner, Meryem Banu Cavlak, Joël Lindegger, Mohammad Sadrosadati, Onur Mutlu, “RowPress Vulnerability in Modern DRAM Chips,” in IEEE Micro (Special Issue: MICRO Top Picks) [arXiv version] [IEEE Xplore]
F. Nisa Bostancı, Ismail Emir Yüksel, Ataberk Olgun, Konstantinos Kanellopoulos, Yahya Can Tugrul, A. Giray Yaglıkcı, Mohammad Sadrosadati, Onur Mutlu, “CoMeT: Count-Min-Sketch-based Row Tracking to Mitigate RowHammer at Low Cost”, Proceedings of the 30th International Symposium on High-Performance Computer Architecture (HPCA), April 2024. [IEEE Xplore] [Slides (pdf)] [arXiv version] [CoMeT Source Code]
Haocong Luo, Ataberk Olgun, Giray Yaglikci, Yahya Can Tugrul, Steve Rhyner, M. Banu Cavlak, Joel Lindegger, Mohammad Sadrosadati, and Onur Mutlu, “RowPress: Amplifying Read Disturbance in Modern DRAM Chips“, Proceedings of the 50th International Symposium on Computer Architecture (ISCA), Orlando, FL, USA, June 2023. [preprint] [Lightning Talk Slides (pptx) (pdf)] [Lightning Talk Video (3 minutes)] [RowPress Source Code and Datasets] Officially artifact evaluated as available, reusable and reproducible.
Ataberk Olgun, Majd Osserian, A. Giray Yağlıkçı, Yahya Can Tugrul, Haocong Luo, Steve Rhyner, Behzad Salami, Juan Gomez-Luna, and Onur Mutlu, “An Experimental Analysis of RowHammer in HBM2 DRAM Chips”, Proceedings of the 53nd Annual IEEE/IFIP International Conference on Dependable Systems and Networks Disrupt Track (DSN Disrupt), Porto, Portugal, June 2023. [IEEE Xplore] [arXiv version]
Onur Mutlu, Ataberk Olgun, and A. Giray Yaglikci, “Fundamentally Understanding and Solving RowHammer”, Invited Special Session Paper at the 28th Asia and South Pacific Design Automation Conference (ASP-DAC), Tokyo, Japan, January 2023. [arXiv version] [Slides (pptx) (pdf)] [Talk Video (26 minutes)]
Ataberk Olgun, Hassan Hasan, A. Giray Yağlıkçı, Yahya Can Tuğrul, Lois Orosa, Haocong Luo, Minesh Patel, Oğuz Ergin, and Onur Mutlu. “DRAM Bender: An Extensible and Versatile FPGA-based Infrastructure to Easily Test State-of-the-art DRAM Chips.” IEEE Transactions on Computer-Aided Design of Integrated Circuits and Systems (TCAD), June 2023. [arXiv version] [DRAM-Bender Source Code] [DRAM Bender Tutorial Video (43 minutes)]
A. Giray Yağlıkçı, Haocong Luo, Geraldo F. de Oliviera, Ataberk Olgun, Minesh Patel, Jisung Park, Hasan Hassan, Jeremie S. Kim, Lois Orosa, and Onur Mutlu, “Understanding RowHammer Under Reduced Wordline Voltage: An Experimental Study Using Real DRAM Devices”, Proceedings of the 52nd Annual IEEE/IFIP International Conference on Dependable Systems and Networks (DSN), Baltimore, MD, USA, June 2022.
[Slides (pptx) (pdf)] [Lightning Talk Slides (pptx) (pdf)] [arXiv version] [Talk Video (34 minutes, including Q&A)]
[Lightning Talk Video (2 minutes)]
Lois Orosa, Abdullah Giray Yaglikci, Haocong Luo, Ataberk Olgun, Jisung Park, Hasan Hassan, Minesh Patel, Jeremie S. Kim, and Onur Mutlu, “A Deeper Look into RowHammer’s Sensitivities: Experimental Analysis of Real DRAM Chips and Implications on Future Attacks and Defenses”, Proceedings of the 54th International Symposium on Microarchitecture (MICRO), Virtual, October 2021.
[Slides (pptx) (pdf)] [Short Talk Slides (pptx) (pdf)] [Lightning Talk Slides (pptx) (pdf)] [Talk Video (21 minutes)] [Lightning Talk Video (1.5 minutes)] [arXiv version]
Hasan Hassan, Yahya Can Tugrul, Jeremie S. Kim, Victor van der Veen, Kaveh Razavi, and Onur Mutlu, “Uncovering In-DRAM RowHammer Protection Mechanisms: A New Methodology, Custom RowHammer Patterns, and Implications”, Proceedings of the 54th International Symposium on Microarchitecture (MICRO), Virtual, October 2021.
[Slides (pptx) (pdf)] [Short Talk Slides (pptx) (pdf)] [Lightning Talk Slides (pptx) (pdf)] [Talk Video (25 minutes)] [Lightning Talk Video (100 seconds)] [arXiv version]
A. Giray Yaglikci, Jeremie S. Kim, Fabrice Devaux, and Onur Mutlu, “Security Analysis of the Silver Bullet Technique for RowHammer Prevention”, Preprint in arXiv, 13 June 2021. [arXiv preprint]
A. Giray Yaglikci, Minesh Patel, Jeremie S. Kim, Roknoddin Azizi, Ataberk Olgun, Lois Orosa, Hasan Hassan, Jisung Park, Konstantinos Kanellopoulos, Taha Shahroodi, Saugata Ghose, and Onur Mutlu, “BlockHammer: Preventing RowHammer at Low Cost by Blacklisting Rapidly-Accessed DRAM Rows”, Proceedings of the 27th International Symposium on High-Performance Computer Architecture (HPCA), Virtual, February-March 2021.
[Slides (pptx) (pdf)] [Short Talk Slides (pptx) (pdf)] [Intel Hardware Security Academic Awards Short Talk Slides (pptx) (pdf)]
[Talk Video (22 minutes)] [Short Talk Video (7 minutes)] [Intel Hardware Security Academic Awards Short Talk Video (2 minutes)] [BlockHammer Source Code]
Intel Hardware Security Academic Award Finalist (one of 4 finalists out of 34 nominations).
Jeremie S. Kim, Minesh Patel, A. Giray Yaglikci, Hasan Hassan, Roknoddin Azizi, Lois Orosa, and Onur Mutlu, “Revisiting RowHammer: An Experimental Analysis of Modern Devices and Mitigation Techniques”, Proceedings of the 47th International Symposium on Computer Architecture (ISCA), Valencia, Spain, June 2020.
[Slides (pptx) (pdf)] [Lightning Talk Slides (pptx) (pdf)] [Lecture Slides (pptx) (pdf)] [ARM Research Summit Poster (pptx) (pdf)]
[Talk Video (20 minutes)] [Lightning Talk Video (3 minutes)] [Lecture Video (55 minutes)]
Pietro Frigo, Emanuele Vannacci, Hasan Hassan, Victor van der Veen, Onur Mutlu, Cristiano Giuffrida, Herbert Bos, and Kaveh Razavi, “TRRespass: Exploiting the Many Sides of Target Row Refresh”, Proceedings of the 41st IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy (S&P), San Francisco, CA, USA, May 2020.
[Slides (pptx) (pdf)] [Lecture Slides (pptx) (pdf)] [Talk Video (17 minutes)] [Lecture Video (59 minutes)] [Source Code] [Web Article]
Best paper award.
Pwnie Award 2020 for Most Innovative Research. Pwnie Awards 2020
Top Picks Honorable Mention by IEEE Micro.
Onur Mutlu and Jeremie Kim, “RowHammer: A Retrospective”, IEEE Transactions on Computer-Aided Design of Integrated Circuits and Systems (TCAD) Special Issue on Top Picks in Hardware and Embedded Security, 2019.
[Preliminary arXiv version] [Slides from COSADE 2019 (pptx)] [Slides from VLSI-SOC 2020 (pptx) (pdf)] [Talk Video (1 hr 15 minutes, with Q&A)]
Onur Mutlu, “RowHammer and Beyond”, Keynote Talk Paper in Proceedings of the 10th International Workshop on Constructive Side-Channel Analysis and Secure Design (COSADE), Darmstadt, Germany, April 2019.
[arXiv version] [Slides (pptx)]
Onur Mutlu, “The RowHammer Problem and Other Issues We May Face as Memory Becomes Denser”, Invited Paper in Proceedings of the Design, Automation, and Test in Europe Conference (DATE), Lausanne, Switzerland, March 2017.
[Slides (pptx) (pdf)]
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