Intel 'Downfall' CPU vulnerability exposes sensitive data2023-08-14 20:06 by DanielaTags: Intel, Downfall, CPU
A scary new CPU security vulnerability has been revealed. It's called Downfall, and it affects Intel chips beginning with 6th Generation Skylake processors through to 11th Gen Rocket Lake and Tiger Lake. Intel's corresponding Xeon processors are also at risk to Downfall. Due to Intel's dominant position in server processors, virtually every internet user could be affected, at least indirectly. Not affected are Intel's newer 12th- and 13th-generation CPU architectures (aka Alder Lake and Raptor Lake), low-end CPUs in the Atom, Pentium, and Celeron families (Apollo Lake, Jasper Lake, Gemini Lake, and others), or older CPU architectures like Haswell and Broadwell (currently only officially supported in servers, but also used in 4th- and 5th-generation Core CPUs for consumer PCs). The vulnerability could be exploited to circumvent barriers meant to keep data isolated, and therefore private, on a system. This could allow attackers to grab valuable and sensitive data from victims, including financial details, emails, and messages, but also passwords and encryption keys. The vulnerability was first revealed to Intel last summer, but only just now published in order to give Intel time to work on a fix. Intel has just begun releasing microcode for its processors to mitigate the issue, which users would get in the form of updates from their hardware vendors. Read more -here-
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