If you assume that the newest processors cannot have vulnerabilities, we are sorry to disappoint. Security researchers have now expressed concerns for mostly all CPU’s, created in 1995 or later. Researchers from Google Project Zero are the ones to have reported two vulnerabilities and they are relevant to owners of laptops, PCs, tablets and smartphones. The detected flaws have been dubbed as Meltdown and Spectre vulnerabilities, potentially making your computer vulnerable to extreme attacks from hackers.
Metldown and Spectre flaws can expose your personal information
According to the report from Google Project Zero, in order to take advantage of these flaws, crooks have to use “speculative execution”. This is related to the way processors optimize performance. To put it in simpler terms, this means that CPUs regard certain assumptions as valid or invalid and the next actions depend upon these decisions.
However, researchers from Google emphasize that this speculative execution can create dangerous opportunities for hackers to strike. Basically, if an invalid assumption is not handled properly, users’ data might be stolen.
The Metldown vulnerability appears to be great for hackers: if exploited, crooks can reach everything that users store in their computer devices. On the other hand, Spectre flaw could be indicated as more severe as it is rather difficult to fix properly.
If exploited, this vulnerability can also lead to similar consequences like leakage of users’ information and digital data. Both of these security issues have been indicated as relevant to almost all owners of PCs, laptops, smartphones and etc.
What can be done to prevent these attacks?
Different owners of operating systems are offering their own solutions. For instance, Android has released fixes for Pixel/Nexus users in their latest update. Furthermore, MacOS operating systems can be fixed with the new macOS High Sierra 10.13.2 update. Linux has also released the necessary patches to make their users’ computers safe. As for the Windows OS, Microsoft has released an update for Windows 10, while other versions are forced to wait a bit longer.
Source: googleprojectzero.blogspot.lt .
