AMD Removes TSME Security From Consumer CPUs

AMD has disabled Transparent Secure Memory Encryption on consumer Ryzen chips, restricting the security feature to its Pro series lineup.

Ars Technica reports that AMD has removed Transparent Secure Memory Encryption (TSME) from lower-end consumer CPUs, a change discovered by Ben Kilpatrick using a Ryzen 7 9700X. TSME encrypts RAM data to prevent physical exploits without OS involvement. The removal followed the AGESA 1.2.7.0 firmware release and is undetectable on Windows, requiring technical work on Linux via Host Security ID to identify. While MSI engineers confirmed consumer chips supported TSME under older firmware, an internal AGESA flag now returns FALSE regardless of BIOS settings. AMD engineers Tom Lendacky and Mario Limonciello addressed the issue on GitHub, but AMD later stated via email that TSME is exclusively part of AMD PRO Technologies. This contradicts a 2020 statement by Lendacky regarding Ryzen 3700X support. AMD has not issued a public report explaining the feature's disappearance from non-Pro hardware.