3D-Stacked HBM Architecture Susceptibility To Thermal Attacks (NC A&T State, New Mexico State)

Researchers from North Carolina A&T State University and New Mexico State University have published a technical paper on the vulnerability of 3D-stacked High-Bandwidth Memory (HBM) architectures to thermal attacks. These architectures, designed to improve memory interactions and overcome performance challenges, are at risk due to their vertical adjacency during manufacturing. Adversaries could exploit this adjacency to launch thermal attacks on memory banks, causing delays in accessing data/instructions without triggering security tests or memory management policies. The attacks involve injecting heat pulses from nearby memory banks, creating a thermal wave that hampers application performance. Detection of such attacks is challenging as they mimic legitimate workloads.