Ref – AMD ID: AMD-SB-8034

Preface: AMD’s original EPYC naming convention used the second digit of the model number to indicate the product generation. For example:

EPYC 7001 Series: 1st Gen (Naples)

EPYC 7002 Series: 2nd Gen (Rome)

EPYC 7003 Series: 3rd Gen (Milan)

However, starting with the 4th Generation (Genoa/Bergamo), AMD changed the prefix to 9004. The 5th Generation (Turin) follows this newer system and is designated as the EPYC 9005 Series.

Background: According to the official AMD Security Advisory AMD-SB-8034 and academic research regarding Leakback CRC attacks, this is not a programming method but a physical vulnerability:

1.Background: AMD 7-Series FPGAs feature a hardware reliability mechanism called Readback CRC. It runs in the background, periodically reading the chip’s internal configuration memory to check for bit flips caused by cosmic rays.

2.Leakage Principle: When this hardware mechanism reads the configuration data via the internal ICAP port, the switching of transistors inside the chip generates faint near-infrared light emissions (Photonic Emission).

3.Attack Vector: Attackers align a contactless optical probe with the surface of the exposed chip to capture these optical signals. By analyzing the photon emissions, they can successfully reconstruct the full, unencrypted hardware circuit netlist of the FPGA, bypassing bitstream encryption.

Technical Focus: Optical Side-Channel Probing of the Internal Configuration Access Port (ICAP) on AMD 7-Series FPGAs from different perspectives.

The security vulnerability AMD-SB-8034 is strictly isolated to AMD 7-Series FPGAs.

Key Differences Preventing Newer Generation Impact

Process Node Shrinkage: Legacy 7-Series FPGAs use 28nm planar technology. Modern Alveo chips use 16nm FinFET down to 5nm advanced process nodes. The severe transistor downscaling and dense multi-layer metal routing dramatically reduce photonic emissions, burying any faint optical signals deep beneath background noise.

Architectural Configuration Overhaul: Older cards rely on standard Internal Configuration Access Port (ICAP) primitives for background memory scrubbing. Modern architectures like Versal Adaptive SoCs entirely replace this legacy layout with a hardened, isolated Platform Management Controller (PMC), changing how configuration data is verified. Therefore, the security vulnerability AMD-SB-8034 is strictly isolated to AMD 7-Series FPGAs.

Official announcement: Please refer to the link for details – https://www.amd.com/en/resources/product-security/bulletin/amd-sb-8034.html