If you read the article, it went undetected so long probably because it looks 
like you have to do 2 or 3 ‘illegal’ things in just the right order at just the 
right time.  (‘illegal’ as in ‘not supposed to work’.  I did find the second 
article very interesting – the one that explained rowhammer.)

I mean, how long did it take my friends at ASU lo these many years ago to put 
together 3 little bits of information to realize the large hole that was left?  
Oh, probably at least a year…  So even with motivation and time AND all the 
information presented right there in front of you, it can take a while.  THIS 
bug apparently involves doing stuff that isn’t really supposed to work.

(And Rowhammer is just SICK.)


From: PLUG-discuss [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf 
Of Matthew Crews
Sent: Tuesday, January 02, 2018 3:39 PM
To: Main PLUG discussion list
Subject: Major Intel Memory Vulnerability


https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/01/02/intel_cpu_design_flaw/

In a nutshell, it is a major security flaw in Intel hardware dating back a 
decade that is requiring a complete kernel rewrite for every major OS (Linux, 
Windows, Mac, etc) in order to patch out. It cannot be patched out with a CPU 
microcode update. Major enough that code comments are redacted in the patches 
until an embargo period is expired. Also the reported fix will have a huge 
performance impact.

Also crucial to note is that AMD chips are not affected by this.

How the heck does something like this go unnoticed for so long?




Sent from ProtonMail<https://protonmail.com>, Swiss-based encrypted email.



---------------------------------------------------
PLUG-discuss mailing list - [email protected]
To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings:
http://lists.phxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss

Reply via email to