Major chip flaws affect billions of devices

CNN ^ | January 4, 2018: 9:44 AM ET | by Selena Larson

[Red Badger]

Two major flaws in computer chips could leave a huge number of computers and smartphones vulnerable to security concerns, researchers revealed Wednesday.

And a U.S. government-backed body warned that the chips themselves need to be replaced to completely fix the problems.

The flaws could allow an attacker to read sensitive data stored in the memory, like passwords, or look at what tabs someone has open on their computer, researchers found. Daniel Gruss, a researcher from Graz University of Technology who helped identify the flaw, said it may be difficult to execute an attack, but billions of devices were impacted.

Related: Apple says all Macs and iOS devices affected by chip flaws

Called Meltdown and Spectre, the flaws exist in processors, a building block of computers that acts as the brain. Modern processors are designed to perform something called "speculative execution." That means they predict what tasks they will be asked to execute and rapidly access multiple areas of memory at the same time.

That data is supposed to be protected and isolated, but researchers discovered that in some cases, the information can be exposed while the processor queues it up.

Researchers say almost every computing system -- desktops, laptops, smartphones, and cloud servers -- is affected by the Spectre bug. Meltdown appears to be specific to Intel (INTC) chips.

"More specifically, all modern processors capable of keeping many instructions in flight are potentially vulnerable. In particular, we have verified Spectre on Intel, AMD, and ARM processors," the researchers said.

[Red Badger]

The government's solution:

Destroy all your stuff and buy new stuff...................

[Red Badger]

Ping!................

[TexasGunLover]

Destroy all your stuff and buy new stuff...................

New stuff still has the flaws.

[Dr. Sivana]

PowerPC processors are affected, too. I haven’t heard if we can still use a DEC Alpha for 64 bit processing.

[WayneS]

It’s a good thing I have an old 286 computer in my closet.

It has 640K of RAM, which is all the memory Bill Gates said I’d ever need...

[Edward.Fish]

I haven’t heard if we can still use a DEC Alpha for 64 bit processing.

If so, maybe I should invest in OpenVMS stock.

[Red Badger]

PDP-11’s not affected..................

[Dr. Sivana]

Does this include Itanium processor based systems? You can probably get one of those pretty cheap!

[Governor Dinwiddie]

Some talented people have been speculating that this was an intentional backdoor for the NSA.
 

[Zathras]

It is interesting it is effecting Intel and ARM processors.
It must be an interaction between how protected memory interacts with Javascript.

We should know more next week.

[the OlLine Rebel]

It’s not saying that.

Although, the processor chip is basically the biggest deal in the hardware.

The chip could be replaced itself.

But then, the latest recommendation was just updating software. A switch from changing hardware to software.

[Paladin2]

I never liked hardware based speculative execution.

[ShadowAce]

[Waverunner]

Buy the new stuff with the government approved back door.

[Red Badger]

From what I’ve read, the software patches will rob you of computing speed by as much as 30%.

While most of us will not notice that loss, people in the graphics and other industries that need it will...................

[Red Badger]

That was the first thing I thought of...........15 years is no ‘mistake’....................

[Red Badger]

Then you’re screwed.............

[Dr. Sivana]

Some talented people have been speculating that this was an intentional backdoor for the NSA.

Doesn't pass Occam's Razor. They would not have had to bother Apple for access to iPhones if it were a true back door. They would not have had to get both Intel and AMD to have processor within the processor technology.

If you want computers to be efficient, and talk to each other, and even anticipate future instructions, avoiding architectural vulnerabilities is VERY difficult.

[Red Badger]

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/jan/04/meltdown-spectre-computer-processor-intel-security-flaws-explainer

[circlecity]

I see a bunch of big class action suits in Intel’s future.