Re: DRAM data persistence

On Jul 3, 10:46 am, n...@xxxxxxxxxxx (Nico Coesel) wrote:
MooseFET <kensm...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On Jul 2, 4:34 pm, Richard Henry <pomer...@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I remember years ago hearing about a security problem with DRAM, that
data could partially persist in the DRAM cells through a power-off/
power-on cycle and might be retireved by careful application of power
and reading of the DRAM contents. Does anyone remember details of
this?

I have also seen it happen in static RAM. The data bits are not
accurately remembered but there is a strong bias towards them waking
up in the same state they were at power down.

I guess if someone can have access to the RAM every night after you go
home, they may be able to reconstruct something of what you work on
during the day.

I doubt it. Any modern OS clears the memory before freeing it for use
by other tasks. This is done to prevent security leaks. Shutting down
the computer frees all memory so all memory is cleared before you can
read it.

Does "any modern OS" include any version of Windows?


.

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