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TL;DR: About a decade ago, AMD added Transparent Secure Memory Encryption to its high-end processors to close a gap in hardware security. TSME encrypts everything in RAM, which blunts cold-boot attacks and other hands-on memory exploits targeting data as it sits on the DIMMs. Over time, the same mechanism quietly appeared on some consumer Ryzen chips as well. Then, after a recent firmware update, it stopped working there, and AMD has offered only a limited explanation for why.
The change came to light in April, when Ben Kilpatrick installed a new OS on a Ryzen 7 9700X system built on AMD's Zen 5 architecture. He describes himself as a "privacy-conscious Linux hobbyist," and part of his routine is to verify that hardware security features are switched on. To do that, he uses Host Security ID, a checker that inspects firmware and hardware configuration.
On earlier firmware, HSI had reported that RAM encryption was enabled on his machine. This time, the readout showed "encrypted RAM: not supported," even though TSME was still enabled in the BIOS.
