Tag Archives: Spectre

A team of researchers has found new Spectre exploits affecting both Intel and AMD processors. The currently available mitigations do not avoid an attack using the new exploits, but researchers are still unsure about the difficulty of using the newly found vulnerabilities in a real-world application. The paper (via Phoronix) …

AMD has published a document warning that Zen 3-based processors may be targeted by side-channel attacks. As per its description, this vulnerability is similar to Spectre, which plagued Intel processors three years ago. AMD Zen 3 core architecture features a new technology that improves performance by predicting the “relationship between loads …

Yesterday, Intel acknowledged that it had caused an uproar with its controversial terms and conditions, attempting to prevent comparison benchmarks between its older microcode updates and its new Foreshadow mitigating patch. After promising to update the license, the firm got in touch with us to provide a statement, as well …

Update (24/08/18): The firm has now “simplified the Intel license to make it easier to distribute CPU microcode updates and posted the new version,” reiterating that it “welcomes all feedback.” Original Story (23/08/18): Alongside its series of microcode fixes to combat Foreshadow and Spectre vulnerabilities, Intel stirred up controversy earlier …

Update (23/08/18): Intel has acknowledged the controversy, promising to change its terms and conditions once again. Intel has released a brand new set of speculative execution microcode updates, helping to mitigate the recently announced Foreshadow vulnerability alongside additional Spectre variants. It looks as though these patches are set to continue …

Intel adds three L1 Terminal Fault (L1TF) bugs to its growing list of processor flaws, led by Foreshadow.

Google Chrome is already rather infamous for eating up a lot of RAM. Last year, we saw Google begin to take steps to tackle the issue, but thanks to Spectre, those efforts are now in-vain. This week, Google announced that Chrome would be getting a Site Isolation feature, which will …

After the disclosure of Meltdown and Spectre, Microsoft and Google promptly shed light on Speculative Store Bypass (variant 4), the latest vulnerability in a string of CPU flaws. Much like Intel’s buggy Spectre patches, the latest fix quells variant 4, but at the price of slowing some systems down by …

Although much of the attention surrounding Spectre CPU flaws has been directed at Intel, it shouldn’t be forgotten that AMD processors are also affected by the exploit. The ‘Red Team’ has now issued a new patch to further mitigate Spectre Variant 2 attacks, covering products dated as far back as …

Since January, Intel has been working on mitigating the impact of the Spectre vulnerability by releasing microcode updates for past chips. Intel CPUs dating back an entire decade are prone to Spectre, so the company started at the top, and began working its way down towards older generations. Patches for …

Given how widespread the Spectre and Meltdown issues are, it’s only a matter of time before processor manufacturers release new CPUs circumventing the vulnerabilities. Intel is hard at work on its new chips set to release this year, revealing some of the hardware changes it’s making to ensure that future …

Two weeks ago, Microsoft stepped in to help distribute Intel’s Spectre and Meltdown fixes as individual vendors would have been too slow. It looks like the Redmond-based company isn’t done just yet, either, as now it’s offering a bug bounty program for anyone that identifies an attack based on the …

Over the past couple of months, Intel has been churning out stable microcode fixes to help mitigate Spectre vulnerabilities across its line of processors. Microsoft has announced that it will begin lending a helping hand with distributing the firmware updates, provided that users are running Windows 10. As of yesterday, …

Last week, Intel addressed Spectre issues in the form of a stable software fix for Skylake, Kaby Lake and Coffee Lake. Just one week later, the company is now pushing out its supposedly stable microcode updates for Broadwell and Haswell processors. The latest update is seemingly a major improvement over …

Despite the Spectre flaw being hardwired into Intel’s current line of processors, the company is determined to clean up the mess with software fixes. Intel now has a fresh batch of microcode patches that hope to smooth things over for all variants of Skylake, Kaby Lake and Coffee Lake processors. …

Intel is experiencing an overwhelming amount of legal action over the Meltdown and Spectre flaws, as the company reveals that the count is currently at 32 lawsuits. The blue team is also under fire from the inside, as three shareholders have each filed shareholder derivative cases claiming a lack of …

Ever since the Meltdown and Spectre revelations hit at the start of this year, security researchers have been working out the extent of the damage and the various ways it can be exploited in order to help with patch development. This week, experts from Nvidia and Princeton University managed to …

Intel is continuing to make progress in its efforts to tackle the Spectre/Meltdown bugs that were publicly unveiled last month. While earlier firmware updates ran into some issues, the chip maker is back on the ball with new firmware updates free of reboot errors. This week, new firmware began rolling …

During AMD's recent quarterly earnings call, the company dropped several interesting pieces of information. Firstly, GPU production is going to be ramped up to meet demand, though memory shortages are slowing things down a bit. Secondly, in the wake of Spectre, AMD will be working to ensure that its upcoming …

Over the last few weeks, Intel, Microsoft and other firms have been working double-time to push out fixes for the Spectre bug following its public unveiling. The bug poses as a serious security concern, so there is plenty of need for swift action. However, that has come at the expense …

The public unveiling of the Spectre and Meltdown CPU bugs has caught the tech industry by storm over the last several weeks. We've been getting constant updates on patches and new information on how the bug was handled prior to going public is still coming to light. Now, it turns …

Intel revealed record fourth-quarter revenues during its earnings call last night, but is keen not to lose this profitability to recent security concerns. Intel CEO Brian Krzanich has since reassured investors that Intel already has a solution to its Meltdown and Spectre issues with a line of upcoming processors set …

Spectre and Meltdown have caused havoc for Intel, from the initial security issues posed, to impending lawsuits and even the company’s fix resulting in reboot issues across Broadwell and Haswell systems. It seems that Intel has finally isolated the problem and is now working on an update. “We have now …

Its a new year, but Leo is just as grumpy as ever. He discussed many new topics in todays 'Leo Says'. But do you agree with everything he says?

During the fallout of the Spectre/Meltdown bug discovery, lawsuits have already begun flying left and right. Intel, ARM and Apple are already named in one particular suit, and it looks like AMD won't be getting away unscathed either. This week, an AMD shareholder filed a lawsuit against the company, after …

Intel's fight against the Spectre and Meltdown bugs continues but with it, more issues are also beginning to arise. Last week, it was discovered that a recent firmware update was causing reboot issues with older Intel processors. Now Intel has confirmed that newer processors can also be affected, with Sandy …

Apple has had a rocky start to the new year after it confirmed that all Mac and iOS devices were affected by Spectre and Meltdown flaws at the start of the month. While it managed release a fix that had issues of its own, there was no question that a …

It looks like iPhone 6 owners may begin experiencing dramatically slower speeds soon, as Apple's iOS Spectre fix seems to have throttled performance by as much as 41 percent.

There has been a lot of discussion surrounding the Spectre and Meltdown security bugs over the last week. After evaluating the situation, AMD has explained which of these bugs affect its own CPUs and how it plans to solve the problem.

Following on from last week's news of a kernel bug affecting x86 systems, OS makers began preparing patches. Microsoft's Windows 10 patch to mitigate this issue was due to arrive today but it seems that it caused issues with AMD systems. As a result, the patch is being halted on …