New Bit2Watt Attack Could Let Cloud Tenants Disrupt Power Grids Without an Exploit

Researchers from Zhejiang University claim that a cloud tenant can disrupt the power grid of a data center using only standard GPU access, without needing to exploit a vulnerability or gain unauthorized access. This is based on a paper to be presented at the CHES 2026 conference, which describes the Bit2Watt attack. The researchers measured the power draw of a data center and found that it can be manipulated by a cloud tenant. The attack involves rapidly increasing and decreasing the data center's power consumption, which can potentially threaten the stability of the power grid. The researchers' findings are based on experimental evidence. The Bit2Watt attack highlights a potential vulnerability in data center power management.