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GANGRENE: Exploring the Mortality of Flash Memory

Flash memory is used for non-volatile storage in a vast array of devices that touch users at work, at home, and at play. Flash memory offers many desirable characteristics, but its key weakness is limited write endurance. Endurance limits continue to decrease as smaller integrated circuit architectures and greater storage densities are pursued. There is a significant body of published work demonstrating methods to extend flash endurance under normal use, but performance of these methods under malicious use has not been adequately researched.
Our GANGRENE work demonstrates the feasibility of attacks on flash memory endurance. We continue to research the extent of this vulnerability and effective defenses.

People

Faculty
Apu Kapadia, Indiana University

PhD Students
Robert Templeman

Publications

Robert Templeman and Apu Kapadia,
GANGRENE: Exploring the Mortality of Flash Memory,”
InĀ Proceedings of The 7th USENIX Workshop on Hot Topics in Security (HotSec ’12),
Bellevue, WA, August 7, 2012.
(bibtex)(usenix)