If you’re reading this then chances are more than likely you’re looking up information on the two biggest vulnerabilities to be announced since Heartbleed.
Now there is just a ton of people talking about these vulnerabilities, I’m going to try and avoid all the real technical mumbo jumbo.
First things first… are you affected?!
*Shakes 8 ball* Most Likely.
Now you might be wondering, “How can that be?!” Well first let’s talk about Meltdown. Meltdown apparently affects Intel chips only. In short it’s a weakness in memory handling with the CPU. Do you have an Intel chip running your computer? chances are more than likely, running Windows? Well you’re in luck, Microsoft is making sure your OS is safe, but at what cost? Maybe a slower system than ever… no AMD then? well OK you may be safe from Meltdown, but you’re still vulnerable to Spectre, and guess what? Microsoft isn’t able to help you get patched either, well apparently if you happen to be running an old AMD chipset.
Not sure how well Intel will do following this, but the odd shares sales by the CEO def don’t look like good signs…
Alright, now back to Spectre.
Well to start off, to say it simply… never assume, it makes an ass of of you and me. Now you’ve probably heard this saying before, and you probably might be wondering why I’m even saying it. Well this vulnerability revolves around the CPU’s algorithm (Speculative Execution) to assume a result based on repetition of previous outcomes of the same operation.
Crazy how these are totally physical based vulnerabilities (At the CPU chip) which affects them all going back super far.. how far back? Well i had to dig a lil deeper into the interwebs via google. (So they know what I’m all about lol). and discovered that the Pentium Pro was the first. Now I’m simply going on the authors words here, but finding sources from so long ago even today can be rather difficult so I’ll simply take his word for it. The blog is actually a great read and covers the aspect of the vulnerability very well. However he goes on to say it’s all about Meltdown, when it might be about Spectre?
Either way… it’s a Spectre Meltdown.
If anyone’s running a HP Spectre laptop with an Intel chipset, and it starts melting down. That be quiet the coincidence. 😛
Happy hacking! Start writing some javascript based if code to exploit these assuming chips 😉
