Re: Re: [EXT] Re: [oss-security] CVE-2023-51767: a bogus CVE in OpenSSH

[Peter Gutmann <pgut001 () cs auckland ac nz>]

Demi Marie Obenour writes:

> Is there something about Rowhammer specifically that makes it an unattractive
> attack, even for nation-state attackers against well-protected targets?

Not Rowhammer specifically, there are a near-infinite number of gee-whiz
conference-paper-worthy attacks that fall into the same category.

Attackers know what works and that's what they go for.  To see what works,
look at any survey of attacks, for example the OWASP Top Ten.  Rowhammer is at
position 26,672 in that list, right next to Spectre and and Meltdown and
Zenbleed and using a reflection in someone's eyeball in a selfie that shows a
reflection on a window that has a reflection on a glass-encased wall image
that has a reflection of a monitor that displays a password.

There's no point worrying about Mission-Impossible attacks when all an
attacker has to do is buy the account credentials from an exploit broker or
something similar.  Cool attacks and countermeasures are fun to talk about,
but if you want to make the system more secure you need to fix the things that
actually matter.

Peter.