Critical vulnerability found in AMD and Intel processors

AMD and Intel processors could be hacked using a new Specter/Meltdown vulnerability. This is reported by TechRadar.

A critical problem was found by specialists from the Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zurich) from Switzerland, Johannes Wikner and Kaveh Razavi. According to experts, the discovered vulnerability allows attackers to gain access to kernel memory. A system vulnerability called Retbleed may be applicable during the performance of computing operations by the chips.

“When computers perform special computational operations to speed up operations, they leave traces that can be abused by hackers to hit processors,” the researchers noted. Attackers can gain access to private information – encryption keys and passwords. The vulnerability is especially dangerous if processors are used for calculations in cloud environments.

According to Vikner and Razavi, almost all AMD and Intel processors are affected by the vulnerability. “However, certain skills are required to gain access to memory and steal information,” Johannes Wikner emphasized.

The journalists of the publication turned to AMD and Intel for comment. “We have already worked with our industry partners to mitigate the effects of Retbleed. Windows systems are not affected as they are protected from the vulnerability by default,” Intel said.

In September, journalists from BleepingComputer found out that hackers have learned how to hack computers through video cards. Malicious code hidden in the memory of the video card cannot be detected, since the built-in protection tools scan only the computer’s RAM.