Engineers and system owners lose control over undocumented DRAM controller registers on pre‑Zen AMD CPUs, exposing real‑time workloads to silent exploits and SMM interference. MemLock provides a cross‑platform, firmware‑level lock and attestation service that secures the memory controller, gives transparent audit logs, and restores deterministic performance for critical applications.
from the GH page: > Developed and tested on AMD Family 16h CPUs, the last generation whose datasheets document the DRAM controller's translation registers — and show that they can't be locked. 17h and beyond simply leave this information out.
Ok, on 2. and in general this exploit only works on pre-Zen AMD platforms as the repo states in not-so-clear terms.Zen changed DTC (DRAM Controller) to UMC (Unified Memory Controller), UMC is programmed at boot, and one would hope they figured that locking access to it makes sense when they were adding confidential compute support; Not clear though because there is no public documentation on it, so best we can hope for is some statement from AMD/3rd party researcher saying "this won't work on Zen because X/Y/Z"
Which arguably is a good thing. As a owner of the system I really should have complete control over it. But currently there is software I have no control over running at even higher privilege levels.The only modern silicon that gives me full control over what code is running is some (or most?) microcontrollers.And this isn't just a question of FOSS principle. Especially SMM is problematic by unpredictably taking CPU cycles away from your workload. This can mess up hard realtime workloads, such as found in CNC controllers. If you are running something like LinuxCNC this something you need to me
Well for one thing I also trust most people I respect to not suddenly have someone else speaking on their behalf in their voice with no disclosure in most contexts where it would not be normal, yet that seems to have happened here. So while I personally do still trust and even respect the author, I can't help but empathize with someone who is suddenly a bit more skeptical.
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