Blessed DaMAgeCard, Who Slips In Through the SD Slot

Patron of SD cards, handheld consoles, and people who plug in whatever they find in a drawer.

Life

In December 2024 researchers at Positive Technologies showed that the new SD Express standard, in order to be fast, connects the memory card straight to the PCIe bus. A modified card, built around a Raspberry Pi Pico and the PCILeech framework, could therefore read and write the device's RAM over DMA, especially where the IOMMU was not enabled. An old trick, in their own words, coming through a new door.

Prayer

O Blessed DaMAgeCard, who hides inside a card weighing a few grams, keep our IOMMUs on and our drawers tidy. Amen.

How to celebrate

Celebrated by enabling the IOMMU in the firmware and eyeing every gifted SD card with suspicion.

Small card, big access.