We are very used to dividing the concept of IT security into two unequal subcategories, hardware- and software-centric. The hardware is usually considered relatively safe and clean — as opposed to software which is usually the layer suffering from bugs and malware.

This value system has been functioning for quite a while, however lately it has been showing signs of changing. Certain firmware responsible for managing discrete hardware components has been getting increasingly complex and is subject to vulnerabilities and exploits. Let’s review the top 5 dangerous hardware vulnerabilities that have recently been found in today’s PCs.

Software, from web security apps, to operating systems to firmware, has been abused and exploited every which way from Sunday for decades by both researchers and attackers.

Now, it is hardware’s turn in the spotlight, as researchers have published details of a new method for exploiting a problem with some DRAM memory devices that can allow attackers to get low-level access to target machines. The problem is being called “rowhammer”, as it’s a method for repeatedly hammering on rows of cells of memory in DRAM devices to induce cells to flip from one state to another.