RISC-V is an open standard instruction set architecture (ISA) provided under open-source licenses that do not require fees to use. ISA is based on established reduced instruction set computer (RISC) principles. RISC-V has features to increase computer speed, while reducing cost and power use.

Many industry players like Google, IBM, NVIDIA, Qualcomm, and Samsung are members of the RISC-V Foundation and have long supported RISC-V development. In 2016, NVIDIA unveiled plans to replace the internal microcontrollers of their graphic cards with next-gen RISC-V-based controllers built for upcoming NVIDIA GPUs.

NVIDIA's Product Security undertook a detailed architectural analysis and research of the RISC-V IP, discovering a potential risk with the ambiguous specification of the Machine Trap Base Address (MTVEC) register. This ambiguity leads to potential fault injection vulnerabilities under physical attack models.

DEF CON (also written as DEFCON, Defcon or DC) is a hacker convention held annually in Las Vegas, Nevada. The first DEF CON took place in June 1993 and today many attendees at DEF CON include computer security professionals, journalists, lawyers, federal government employees, security researchers, students, and hackers with a general interest in software, computer architecture, hardware modification, conference badges, and anything else that can be "hacked". The event consists of several tracks of speakers about computer- and hacking-related subjects, as well as cyber-security challenges and competitions (known as hacking wargames). Contests held during the event are extremely varied, and can range from creating the longest Wi-Fi connection to finding the most effective way to cool a beer in the Nevada heat.

Glitching RISC-V chips: MTVEC corruption for hardening ISA

Conference: Defcon 29

Abstract

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