System for protecting CPU core by identifying data and instructions

Hardware enforced CPU core protection by identification of digital blocks as instructions or data. A method includes, at a memory controller shim, receiving, from a CPU core, a memory read request. The memory read request comprises an address for a block. The block at the address is requested from a memory. The block is received from the memory. At least one of a decryption key or an authentication key is accessed. At least one of a decryption transformation or an authentication transformation is performed on the block using the decryption key or the authentication key. When the decryption transformation or authentication transformation is deemed valid, a plain text version of the block is returned to the CPU core for consumption. When the decryption transformation or authentication transformation is deemed invalid, the CPU core is prevented from consuming the plain text version of the block.