Glossary

RowHammer

Beginner

A flaw where reading one row of DRAM over and over can flip bits in the rows next to it.

Novice

A DRAM disturbance error: activating the same row very many times between refreshes makes charge leak faster from cells in neighboring rows, flipping bits that were never accessed.

Expert

Caused by repeated word-line toggling coupling into adjacent cells. It became a security problem because software can trigger it. Mitigations: more frequent refresh, target-row refresh of neighbors, and access counting in the controller or the DRAM.

Explained in Memory cells (Transistors).

See also: DRAM, Refresh (DRAM).

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