So the kernel memory could house some private data which is accessible to hackers. Now as we read above, everything passes through the kernel when it comes to the operating system. The bug lets hackers get access to the kernel memory. Spectre was reported by Jann Horn (Google Project Zero) and Paul Kocher in collaboration with, in alphabetical order, Daniel Genkin (University of Pennsylvania and University of Maryland), Mike Hamburg (Rambus), Moritz Lipp (Graz University of Technology), and Yuval Yarom (University of Adelaide and Data61).Īccording to this FAQ, there is no known misuse by exploiting the Meltdown or Spectre vulnerabilities that have been recorded yet. This affects not just PCs, but also mobile phones, embedded devices and other devices housing a chip. Spectre, on the other hand, breaks the isolation between different applications, which will let hackers into tricking programs to leak their secrets. Here are the patches to fixthe Meltdown exploit. It was discovered by Jann Horn (Google Zero Project), Werner Haas and Thomas Prescher (Cyberus Technology) and Daniel Gruss, Moritz Lipp, Stefan Mangard, Michael Schwarz (Graz University of Technology). Systems with vulnerable processors and those running an unpatched OS, need to beware and not work with sensitive information. This attack lets a program access the memory and the operating system. Meltdown lets malicious software break this protection. Memory spaces between applications are segregated and protected to prevent accidental interference with each other's data. Meltdown is an exploit that breaks the secure separation layer between user applications and the operating system. Meltdown is the name given to the vulnerability which affects Intel chips whereas Spectre is the name been given to vulnerabilities in other chip vendors and affects all chips, including ARM, Intel and AMD. Since it is an x86 chip issue, systems running Linux, Windows, as well as macOS, have been affected. The Python Sweetness blog notes that the attack could impact common virtualisation environments such as Amazon's EC2 and Google Compute Engine. Desktops, laptops and even cloud computers running on Intel chips have been affected. There is no way to know it, as there are no traces left in traditional log files. The speculation is that this bug is affecting all Intel x86 processors irrespective of the OS running on the system. Which systems are affected? How do I find out if my system is also affected?Īny system with an Intel chip is affected by the flaw. The flaw appears to be letting attackers bypass the protections surrounding the kernel access, which lets any regular app read the contents of the kernel memory. Your PC is switching between the user mode and the kernel mode to ensure that instructions being given to your system are giving the right results. So in a sense, it manages the memory resources, CPU resources as well as the processes required to run the software. Any time you fire up an application, turn on Bluetooth or Wi-Fi, turn on that game - everything goes through the kernel. The diagram above shows how the kernel is the mediator between the software and the device hardware such as the processor, memory as well as other plugged devices. Schematic of a Kernel with regards to an OS.
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