Cybersecurity
New Rowhammer Attack Exposes NVIDIA GPUs to Full System Control
By Sentinel News Editorial Team
May 10, 2026
Source: Schneier
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A novel Rowhammer exploit has emerged, specifically targeting NVIDIA graphics processing units (GPUs) and potentially granting adversaries full command over host systems. This development extends the well-understood Rowhammer vulnerability from central processing units into a new, critical hardware domain.
<p>A new <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Row_hammer">rowhammer</a> attack gives <a href="https://arstechnica.com/security/2026/04/new-rowhammer-attacks-give-complete-control-of-machines-running-nvidia-gpus/">complete control</a> of NVIDIA CPUs.</p>
<blockquote><p>On Thursday, two research teams, working independently of each other, demonstrated attacks against two cards from Nvidia’s Ampere generation that take GPU rowhammering into new—and potentially much more consequential—territory: GDDR bitflips that give adversaries full control of CPU memory, resulting in full system compromise of the host machine. For the attack to work, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Input-output_memory_management_unit">IOMMU</a> memory management must be disabled, as is the default in BIOS settings.</p>
<p>“Our work shows that Rowhammer, which is well-studied on CPUs, is a serious threat on GPUs as well,” said Andrew Kwong, co-author of one of the papers. “...</p></blockquote>
Analysis
This research significantly shifts the landscape of hardware-level exploitation, demonstrating that fundamental memory vulnerabilities can manifest across diverse chip architectures. It underscores an urgent need for organizations to reassess system configurations beyond software patches, particularly in environments utilizing high-performance GPUs for sensitive operations. The findings emphasize that sophisticated adversaries now have a proven path to system control by targeting foundational hardware components, challenging conventional defense strategies.
