# xoreaxeaxeax/rosenbridge

Hardware backdoors in x86 CPUs

Repository: https://github.com/xoreaxeaxeax/rosenbridge
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/rosenbridge
Language: C
License: MIT
License Family: permissive
Last push: 2018-10-12T09:22:06+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 32/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-02T17:46:02.011165+00:00)
- activity 0, release rhythm 35, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 2946, "days_push": 2882, "days_rel": null, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 0}
- flags: no_releases
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 2614, forks 230 (observed 2026-08-28T04:07:04.527995+00:00)

## What it is
Rosenbridge is a security research project that documents a hardware backdoor in some VIA C3 x86 processors, allowing userland code to bypass privilege protections and access kernel memory. It includes Linux utilities to detect the backdoor, close it, and analyze the deeply embedded non-x86 coprocessor core.

## Use cases
- check if my CPU has a hardware backdoor
- detect rosenbridge backdoor on VIA C3 processor
- close a hardware backdoor in x86 CPU
- research hidden coprocessors in x86 chips
- scan for CPU privilege escalation vulnerabilities
- learn how hardware backdoors are discovered

## When to choose
- you run Linux baremetal on a VIA C3 processor and want to check for or disable the backdoor
- you are a hardware security researcher studying embedded CPU coprocessors
- you want a case study in discovering undocumented processor features

## When to avoid
- you need a general-purpose CPU vulnerability scanner for modern Intel or AMD chips
- you run in a virtual machine, since the tools require baremetal execution
- you expect production-grade stability, as the utilities are alpha and may crash or hang systems

## Facets
- artifact type: cli-tool
- maturity: maintenance
- function: security, vulnerability-scanning, reverse-engineering, cli
- domain: security, hardware, reverse-engineering, operating-systems
- platform: cli, cpp
- tags: hardware-backdoor, cpu-vulnerability, x86, kernel-security, security-research, msr, linux

## Member repositories
- xoreaxeaxeax/rosenbridge (main) score 32

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:07:04.527995+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 2026-08-30T02:20:37.725120+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/xoreaxeaxeax/rosenbridge (fetched 2026-08-28T04:07:04.527995+00:00, sha 60cb301fdcc3)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.