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Isn't the pure hardware method for memory snapshots some ridiculously complex mechanism with freezing the memory and quickly transferring it to a reading device

Isn't the pure hardware method for memory snapshots some ridiculously complex mechanism with freezing the memory and quickly transferring it to a reading device? If you're going to pull this, you need to know in advance that it's necessary, that's not some minor thing that everyone is going to just do automatically, it's an extra, complicated step it's easy to screw up. That said, I acknowledge the possibility of compromise in the aforementioned scenario, but once again I don't understand people who always jump to the "I am vulnerable to this narrow threat model, ergo, I should not bother to protect myself against any threat models". Especially when the measures you can take to protect yourself most likely will address the actual threat models you are liable to encounter.

lloeki 13y ago
> Isn't the pure hardware method for memory snapshots some ridiculously complex mechanism with freezing the memory and quickly transferring it to a reading device? With Virtual Private Servers, it's trivial to do the virtualized version of this through the hypervisor.
- etherael 13y ago
  My original statement said "dedicated server". The response said; "virtual server attack, also works with pure hardware machines". The only version of this attack that is relevant to the original statement is one that works on a dedicated server, so re-stating that it's trivial to do this against a virtual private server isn't really adding anything to the conversation.
mike-cardwell 13y ago
"ridiculously complex mechanism" ... Not really. Anyone with the ability to stick a USB stick in a USB port and hit a power reset button can pull off this attack: http://www.mcgrewsecurity.com/tools/msramdmp/ http://www.mcgrewsecurity.com/tools/msramdmp/
- etherael 13y ago
  Interesting stuff. TRESOR might not be overkill after all.
- noinsight 13y ago
  Hmm, that requires USB booting though, if you disable that from the BIOS and password protect it, they can't really use this method. If they pull the battery the machine needs to be turned off and so the RAM will clear.
  - etherael 13y ago
    You don't get BIOS access to low cost dedicated servers on OVH, even though they're dedicated, you can't KVM them. mid to high range ones you can though so that might be a workable solution there. Also, they can still rip the ram out and nitrogen it.

lloeki 13y ago

> Isn't the pure hardware method for memory snapshots some ridiculously complex mechanism with freezing the memory and quickly transferring it to a reading device? With Virtual Private Servers, it's trivial to do the virtualized version of this through the hypervisor.

etherael 13y ago
My original statement said "dedicated server". The response said; "virtual server attack, also works with pure hardware machines". The only version of this attack that is relevant to the original statement is one that works on a dedicated server, so re-stating that it's trivial to do this against a virtual private server isn't really adding anything to the conversation.

mike-cardwell 13y ago

"ridiculously complex mechanism" ... Not really. Anyone with the ability to stick a USB stick in a USB port and hit a power reset button can pull off this attack: http://www.mcgrewsecurity.com/tools/msramdmp/ http://www.mcgrewsecurity.com/tools/msramdmp/

etherael 13y ago
Interesting stuff. TRESOR might not be overkill after all.
noinsight 13y ago
Hmm, that requires USB booting though, if you disable that from the BIOS and password protect it, they can't really use this method. If they pull the battery the machine needs to be turned off and so the RAM will clear.
- etherael 13y ago
  You don't get BIOS access to low cost dedicated servers on OVH, even though they're dedicated, you can't KVM them. mid to high range ones you can though so that might be a workable solution there. Also, they can still rip the ram out and nitrogen it.