Experts Weigh In On Spectre Patch Challenges
Mitigating Spectre and Meltdown flaws won’t be easy, but experts say exploits targeting Spectre will be hard to patch against. Continue reading Experts Weigh In On Spectre Patch Challenges
Category Archives: CPU
What exactly is microcode and how does it differ from firmware?
Insofar as terminology, what exactly is “microcode” and if it can be updated, how does it differ from firmware?
This question is not a duplicate of this question (as far as I can tell) which I’ve also asked about modifying m… Continue reading What exactly is microcode and how does it differ from firmware?
Capability of microcode hacking?
Before Spectre and Meltdown, I’ve never heard of users updating microcode on a chip through firmware or otherwise. I actually thought it was written into the silicon and immutable. Now I’m seeing a lot of mentions about this…. Continue reading Capability of microcode hacking?
VERT Threat Alert: CPU Vulnerabilities – Meltdown and Spectre
Vulnerability Description Meltdown and Spectre are hardware design vulnerabilities in CPUs utilizing speculative execution. While the defect exists in the hardware, mitigations in operating systems are possible and are currently available. CPU hardware… Continue reading VERT Threat Alert: CPU Vulnerabilities – Meltdown and Spectre
The Low Down on the CPU Vulnerabilities
As you’ve probably already noticed a few highly dangerous CPU vulnerabilities have been released that effect the CPU at a hardware level. Since this is base off the hardware itself all operating systems (Windows, Linux, Android, macOS) need to pr… Continue reading The Low Down on the CPU Vulnerabilities
Does recent Intel hardware mitigate Meltdown at the hardware level?
Recently a security researcher made the following claim via Twitter (emphasis added):
If you’re running Windows, I’m about to publish a tool that checks if you have the “Variant 3: rogue data cache load (CVE-2017-5754)” a… Continue reading Does recent Intel hardware mitigate Meltdown at the hardware level?
Are VIA CPUs vulnerable to Spectre/Meltdown attacks?
I couldn’t find any information about the recently published Spectre/Meltdown attacks affecting VIA CPUs.
Are they also affected by this vulnerabilities?
Continue reading Are VIA CPUs vulnerable to Spectre/Meltdown attacks?
Cyber News Rundown: Edition 1/5/18
The Cyber News Rundown brings you the latest happenings in cyber news weekly. Who am I? I’m Connor Madsen, a Webroot Threat Research Analyst with a passion for all things security. Any questions?…read more
The post Cyber News Rundown: Edition 1… Continue reading Cyber News Rundown: Edition 1/5/18
What was state of the art knowledge on security of speculative evaluation when it was introduced to Intel CPUs?
Many sources claim that almost all Intel x86 CPUs back to Pentium Pro are vulnerable to the Meltdown attack. Pentium Pro was introduced to the market in 1995.
What was the state of the art knowledge on security of speculativ… Continue reading What was state of the art knowledge on security of speculative evaluation when it was introduced to Intel CPUs?
Do the Spectre and Meltdown CPU bugs affect AMD in addition to Intel?
If a server or or PC is running AMD CPUs, will those be affected by the Spectre and/or Meltdown bugs currently effecting Intel chips?
Why or why not?
What makes it affect one and not the other? How does architecture play a … Continue reading Do the Spectre and Meltdown CPU bugs affect AMD in addition to Intel?