# isec-tugraz/meltdown

This repository contains several applications, demonstrating the Meltdown bug.

Repository: https://github.com/isec-tugraz/meltdown
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/meltdown
Homepage: https://meltdownattack.com
Language: C
License: Zlib
License Family: permissive
Topics: exploit, proof-of-concept, side-channel
Archived: true
Last push: 2022-05-30T09:50:58+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 10/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-02T17:46:02.011165+00:00)
- activity 0, release rhythm 35, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 3164, "days_push": 1556, "days_rel": null, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 0}
- flags: no_releases, archived
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 4172, forks 521 (observed 2026-08-28T04:08:38.038358+00:00)

## What it is
A collection of proof-of-concept applications demonstrating the Meltdown CPU vulnerability, built on the libkdump library. It includes demos for reading memory, breaking KASLR, and leaking kernel/physical memory on vulnerable Intel processors.

## Use cases
- demonstrate the Meltdown side-channel attack on an Intel CPU
- test whether a system is vulnerable to Meltdown
- break KASLR to locate the kernel in memory
- dump physical memory including kernel memory
- learn how microarchitectural side-channel attacks work
- reproduce results from the Meltdown research paper

## When to choose
- you are researching or teaching CPU side-channel attacks
- you need a reference PoC for the Meltdown vulnerability on Linux
- you want to verify mitigations against Meltdown on Intel hardware

## When to avoid
- you need a production security tool or scanner
- your CPU is AMD or pre-2010 Intel (attack likely does not work)
- you want a maintained tool with ongoing updates
- you are on Windows or macOS (demos target Linux)

## Facets
- artifact type: application
- maturity: maintenance
- function: security, developer-tools
- domain: security, operating-systems, hardware
- platform: cpp
- tags: meltdown, side-channel, proof-of-concept, exploit, cpu-vulnerability, microarchitectural-attacks, linux

## Member repositories
- isec-tugraz/meltdown (main) score 10

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:08:38.038358+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-29T18:22:44.347265+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/isec-tugraz/meltdown (fetched 2026-08-28T04:08:38.038358+00:00, sha d7d3eb7cdc50)
  - homepage: https://meltdownattack.com (fetched 2026-08-29T09:13:21.810609+00:00, sha f0a33e70ab12)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.