Two severe vulnerabilities found in Intel’s hardware
Credit to Author: Jornt van der Wiel| Date: Thu, 04 Jan 2018 10:35:01 +0000
Two severe vulnerabilities have been discovered in Intel chips, both of which could enable attackers to seize sensitive information from apps by accessing the core memory. The first vulnerability, Meltdown can effectively remove the barrier between user applications and the sensitive parts of the operating system. The second vulnerability, Spectre, also found in AMD and ARM chips can trick vulnerable applications into leaking their memory contents.
Applications installed on a device generally run on ‘user mode’, away from the more sensitive parts of the operating system. If an app needs access to a sensitive area, for example the underlying disc, network or processing unit, it needs to ask permission to use ‘protected mode’. In Meltdown’s case, an attacker could access protected mode and the core memory without requiring permission, effectively removing the barrier – and enabling them to potentially steal data from the memory of running apps, such as data from password managers, browsers, emails, and photos and documents.
As they are hardware bugs, patching is a significant job. Patches against Meltdown have been issued for Linux, Windows and OS X, and work is underway to strengthen software against future exploitation of Spectre. Google has published further information here. It is vital that users install any available patches without delay. It will take time for attackers to figure out how to exploit the vulnerabilities – providing a small but critical window for protection.