Conjuring Hardware Failures to Breach CPU Privilege Boundaries

Explore a groundbreaking security research presentation that demonstrates how to weaponize catastrophic hardware failures for privilege escalation attacks. Learn how independent security researcher Christopher Domas circumvents traditional hardware fail-safes by deliberately creating fatal hardware events through software manipulation rather than waiting for naturally occurring failures like cosmic ray bit flips or memory degradation. Discover the methodology for injecting Machine Check Exception signals during privileged CPU operations to disrupt secure transitions and create cascading system failures that can be exploited for hardware privilege escalation. Understand the techniques for forcing damaged systems to continue operating instead of shutting down, riding the resulting chaos to gain unauthorized access to privileged hardware space. Master the recovery processes that allow attackers to undo damage and restore system functionality while maintaining their newly acquired foothold in privileged space, all achieved through software-only attacks that synthesize hardware failure events. Examine a previously unknown attack vector demonstrated against redacted hardware systems, revealing additional hardware vulnerabilities and opening new research opportunities for both offensive and defensive security professionals across multiple technologies and architectures.