New Exploit Unlocks Microcode and SMM on 100 Million AMD CPUs
OwariDa · x · 2026-08-13
A security researcher published a major vulnerability research project targeting AMD processors (dubbed skitter-creek-bath-salts).
By manipulating the DRAM controller to scramble physical DRAM address translations, the exploit can unlock the CPU's deepest level of protections all at once, including the Platform Security Processor (PSP), System Management Mode (SMM), C6 DRAM, and CPU microcode. The research notes that the affected processors are AMD Family 16h and older, impacting roughly 100 million CPUs. Because the issue stems from the hardware-level DRAM scrambling mechanism and lacks a locking feature, it appears to be unfixable.
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