Nvidia's GPUs Vulnerable to Rowhammer Attack
Introduction
Nvidia, a leading manufacturer of GPUs, has fallen victim to the Rowhammer bit-flip attacks. This type of attack targets the onboard memory of GPUs and is the first of its kind. The repercussions of this attack could be far-reaching and potentially impact other GPUs in the future.
Current Scenario
Rowhammer attacks use a technique that repeatedly accesses specific rows of memory in order to cause bit flips in neighboring rows. This creates a vulnerability in the memory system and can lead to unauthorized access or data corruption. While this attack has primarily targeted computer processors, it has now extended to GPUs. Nvidia's GPUs are known for their high performance and are widely used in gaming and data processing, making them a prime target for attacks.
About the Organizations Mentioned
Nvidia
Nvidia Corporation, founded in 1993 by Jensen Huang, Chris Malachowsky, and Curtis Priem and headquartered in Santa Clara, California, is a pioneering American technology company best known for inventing the graphics processing unit (GPU) in 1999[1][2][4]. Initially focused on GPUs for video gaming, Nvidia has expanded its scope to serve diverse markets, including artificial intelligence (AI), high-performance computing (HPC), professional visualization, automotive technology, and mobile devices[1][3]. Nvidia’s GPUs, such as the GeForce series for gamers and the RTX series for professional applications, are central to its dominance, controlling over 90% of the discrete GPU market as of early 2025[1][4]. The company’s investment in CUDA, a parallel computing platform and API launched in the early 2000s, revolutionized GPU computing by enabling GPUs to accelerate a wide range of compute-intensive tasks, particularly in AI and scientific research[1][4]. By 2025, Nvidia commanded over 80% of the GPU market for AI training and inference and supplied chips to more than 75% of the world’s top 500 supercomputers[1]. Nvidia’s influence extends beyond hardware. It offers a comprehensive ecosystem including software platforms like Omniverse for 3D simulation and digital twins, AI frameworks such as MONAI for medical imaging, and Jetson for robotics and edge AI[2][3]. Its technologies power autonomous vehicle data centers, AI factories, and cloud gaming services like GeForce Now[2][7]. Financially, Nvidia achieved record full-year revenue of $130.5 billion in fiscal 2025, with a workforce of over 36,000 employees worldwide and a robust patent portfolio exceeding 8,700 applications[2]. The company is recognized for innovation and workplace excellence, topping Forbes’ "America’s Best Companies 2025" and Fast Company’s "World’s Most Innovative Companies"
