Processor
New Spectre v2 attack variant leaks Linux root password hash in minutes
A new Spectre v2 attack variant called Branch Target Reuse (BTR) can recover root password hashes from Intel computers running Linux in just a few minutes. A BTR attack exploits stale information in a processor’s branch predictor after a just-in-time (JIT) engine reuses memory for new code. By manipulating this leftover information, an attacker can […]
New Intel CPU flaws leak sensitive data from privileged memory
A new “Branch Privilege Injection” flaw in all modern Intel CPUs allows attackers to leak sensitive data from memory regions allocated to privileged software like the operating system kernel. Typically, these regions are populated with information like passwords, cryptographic keys, memory of other processes, and kernel data structures, so protecting them from leakage is crucial. According to ETH […]
New Apple CPU side-channel attacks steal data from browsers
A team of security researchers has disclosed new side-channel vulnerabilities in modern Apple processors that could steal sensitive information from web browsers. The Georgia Institute of Technology and Ruhr University Bochum researchers, who presented another attack dubbed ‘iLeakage’ in October 2023, presented their new findings in two separate papers, namely FLOP and SLAP, which show distinct flaws […]
New AMD SinkClose flaw helps install nearly undetectable malware
AMD is warning about a high-severity CPU vulnerability named SinkClose that impacts multiple generations of its EPYC, Ryzen, and Threadripper processors. The vulnerability allows attackers with Kernel-level (Ring 0) privileges to gain Ring -2 privileges and install malware that becomes nearly undetectable. Ring -2 is one of the highest privilege levels on a computer, running […]