The EPIC lab’s research on flash and SSD memory management spans the reliability, security, and sustainability challenges emerging in modern 3D NAND and NOR Flash technologies. This body of work includes the discovery of new vulnerability pathways—such as RowHammer‑like disturbances induced by hot‑carrier injection and data remanence in charge‑trap NOR devices even after sanitization—highlighting critical security risks in commercial flash memories. The focus is also on demonstrating practical attacks, including experimental extraction of proprietary data‑scrambling keys in COTS NAND, and development of robust countermeasures such as PULSE, a page‑overwrite sanitization technique tailored for 3D NAND architectures. Complementing these security contributions, efforts also focus on advancing endurance and reliability through innovations like thermal‑annealing‑based lifetime extension and improved block‑management strategies using sub‑block first‑write sequencing. We have further pushed the frontier of in‑flash computation with TCFlash, enabling bulk bitwise processing through dynamic sensing and TLC‑aware encoding. Collectively, this research establishes a comprehensive foundation for secure, reliable, and energy‑efficient next‑generation SSDs, bridging device‑level behavior with system‑level memory management strategies.
Selected Publications
H. Ur Rahman, M. Buddhanoy, S. Pasricha, and B. Ray, “RowHammer Vulnerabilities in 3D NAND Flash Induced by Hot Carrier Injection”, IEEE HOST Washington DC, May 2026.
A. Murali, M. Buddhanoy, M. A. Kumar, A. Milenkovic, I. Ray, S. Pasricha, B. Ray, “Erasing Is Not Enough: Data Leakage from Sanitized Charge-Trap NOR Flash Devices”, IEEE HOST, Washington DC, May 2026.
M. Buddhanoy, H. Ur Rahman, A. Milenkovic, S. Pasricha and B. Ray, “Descrambling the Scrambler: Experimental Extraction of Data Scrambling Keys in COTS NAND Flash”, IEEE ISQED 2026.
B. Ray, S. Raghunathan, S. Pasricha, “Reliability, Security and Sustainability Challenges in 3D NAND Flash SSDs”, IEEE Design & Test, 2025.
M. Buddhanoy, A. Milenkovic, S. Pasricha, B. Ray, “ Page-Overwrite Data Sanitization in 3D NAND Flash: Challenges, Feasibility, and the PULSE Solution”, ACM Transactions on Embedded Computing Systems (TECS), Oct 2025.
H. Ur-Rahman, T. Suresh, S. Pasricha, B. Ray, “TCFlash: In-Flash Bulk Bitwise Processing via Dynamic Sensing and TLC Encoding in 3D NAND”, IEEE ICCD, Dallas, TX, Nov 2025.
M. Buddhanoy, A. Milenkovic, S. Pasricha, B. Ray, “Page-Overwrite Data Sanitization in 3D NAND Flash: Challenges, Feasibility, and the PULSE Solution”, IEEE/ACM ESWEEK (CASES), Oct 2025.
M. Buddhanoy, S. Pasricha, B. Ray, “Life-after-Death: Exploring Thermal Annealing Conditions to Enhance 3D NAND SSD Endurance”, ACM HotStorage, 2024.
M. Buddhanoy, K. Khan, A. Milenkovic, S. Pasricha, B. Ray, “Improving Block Management in 3D NAND Flash SSDs with Sub-Block First Write Sequencing”, ACM Great Lakes Symposium on VLSI (GLSVLSI), 2024