GPUThor hardware attack can root Nvidia GPU systems

Researchers from the University of Toronto developed GPUThor, a new Rowhammer attack (a technique that exploits how tightly packed memory cells can leak electrical charge to flip stored bits) that can defeat error-correcting codes (ECC, a defense that detects and fixes memory errors) on Nvidia GPUs and gain root access (complete control) to the system. Unlike previous GPU attacks, GPUThor uses non-uniform row hammering to create multiple bit flips simultaneously, which the ECC system cannot handle, and works much faster than earlier methods.