Late last night, a bombshell report from The Register detailed a worrisome new vulnerability said to impact all Intel chips released over the past decade.
Late last night, a bombshell report from The Register detailed a worrisome new vulnerability said to impact all Intel chips released over the past decade. The report explained how the vulnerability might potentially enable malicious actors to access sensitive data — such as passwords — stored in protected memory. Though Microsoft and Apple were reportedly already working on a fix, the initial report relayed that updated machines might run as much as 30% slower after the fact.
Now that a bit more time has passed, we’ve since learned that the vulnerability in question not only impacts Intel processors, but AMD and ARM processors as well. So while this is still an incredibly serious issue, it’s not a problem that uniquely puts Intel alone into crisis mode. All that said, Intel has since come out with an official statement on the matter where, among other things, it notes that patched machines will not, as initially reported, necessarily run 30% slower.
Intel’s statement, which can be read below, also makes a point of noting that any exploits based on the newly discovered vulnerability will not be able to modify or delete any sensitive data.
AMD, meanwhile, issued a press release of its own noting that its own chips are, in fact, also impacted by the exploit. Still, AMD makes a point of stating that its chips are practically at “zero risk” for being exploited. The company’s full statement ( via Barron’s) can be read below:
As a final point, it’s worth noting that Apple already patched things up when it released macOS 10.13.2 last month.
