Saint Phoenix, Who Rose From the Ashes of DDR5

Patron of DDR5 memory modules, anti-Rowhammer defences, and everyone who thought modern memory was safe.

Life

On 15 September 2025 the COMSEC group at ETH Zurich, with Google, revealed Phoenix, a Rowhammer attack on SK Hynix DDR5 memory. By synchronising the hammering with the rhythm of the in-DRAM defences, it produced bit flips even where protections were thought solid, and on an ordinary PC reached root privileges in under two minutes. Like the phoenix, Rowhammer rose again from its own ashes.

Prayer

O Saint Phoenix, who rise with every new generation of memory, let our DIMMs be patched faster than your patterns. Amen.

How to celebrate

Celebrated by tripling the refresh rate where needed and awaiting per-row activation counters in future silicon.

A new defence, a reborn phoenix.