Seeds of SEED: New Security Challenges for Persistent Memory

Persistent Memeory Object (PMO) is a general system abstraction for holding persistent data in persistent main memory, managed by an operating system. PMO programming model breaks inter-process isolation as it results in sharing of persistent data between two processes as they alternatively access the same PMO. The uncoordinated data-access opens a new avenue for cross-run and cross-process security attacks.In this paper, we discuss threat vulnerabilities that are either new or increased in intensity under PMO programming model. We also discuss security implications of using the PMO, highlighting sample PMO-based attacks and potential strategies to defend against them.