One threat that can give any dangerous app a complete control over your hone is the RAMpage exploit. This has the potential to exploit thousand hundreds of devices out there. It is a sort of the previous attacks that made use of the Rowhammer hardware vulnerability so as to run the malicious code by altering the things that are stored into the memory of your device, that is, RAM. Also, it is a potential threat to your data loss as it provides an unauthorized access. In this article we will provide you an in depth know how of RAMpage security exploit.
Implication of Rowhammer
Unless you do not tjeoretically know what Rowhammer is, you will not be able to understand it in details. Rowhammer is ideally a term that is used so as to describe the hardware problem that effects the computer RAM. This takes place due to the laws of physics and is not literally an exploit. In Modern devices the RAM chips are packed very densely. This causes the electric leak from one part that has the otential to hamper working of another via electrical crosstalk. In other terms you may call it a transistor leakage. It implies atht there is one component that radiates more stray electricity which its neighbours are incapable of handling. This usually impacts the video cards or the CPUs. It further results in bit flipping which gives an attacker the permission to alter the app setting and control the phone.
ION: RAMpage attacks ION on Android devices
Rowhammer attack gets triggered in a number of ways. . it can even trigger if you simply visit the webpage. RAMpage is said to use the ION subsystem so as to trigger the attack. ION refers to a universal generic memory management system that Google has added to the Android kernel. The purpose of adding ION to the Android kernel was to allow all manufacturers to switch to using Linux kernel source so as to make the system more universal.
How does RAMpage work?
RAMpage attacks the ION subsystem. This results in writing and refreshing a row of bits in the physical memory with an intention of flipping a bit in the adjacent row. This allows one application to gain access to another apps data, or act as the system administrator to enjoy the full control. Reading data of another app is ideally not allowed but a malicious program can device a RAMpage to exploit and get administrative control.
Does this affect Windows or Apple products?
There are no facts to support this, but it is claimed that RAMpage has the potential to bother iOS, macOS, Windows PCs, and even cloud servers. To get the surety about the same there is need to wait for further findings to be made.
Worry or not?
Devices that were launched in the market after 2012 make use of the ION subsystem and has DDR2, DDR3, or DDR4 RAM. All this implies that these are vulnerable and you need to have a brief know how of RAMpage and other Rowhammer attacks that exists out there.
All in all, this is an in depth know how of RAMpage security exploit. However, you must know that using this attack you cannot hit on simply one thing. Also, the software like Android or iOS have the protections built in. This makes sure that there is no specific place in the memory any task requires to be written to. This implies that there is no actual need for you to worry about anything and that you are safe.
