Major Security Flaws “Meltdown and Spectre” Exposed in Modern Processors
On January 4, 2018, the IT industry was shocked by the discovery of two major security flaws in modern processors: “Meltdown and Spectre. These vulnerabilities impacted almost every device manufactured over the past 20 years, including computers, mobiles, and tablets, as well as major chip architectures like Intel, ARM, and AMD. The flaws even affected popular software vendors such as Linux, Windows, macOS, and Android.
Processors play a crucial role in computers by efficiently handling different tasks. One vital function is branch prediction, where the processor predicts the user’s likely actions, enabling it to simultaneously explore multiple code paths. This architectural technique, known as speculation execution, helps save processing time. However, malicious attackers exploited these vulnerabilities to gain access to sensitive information like passwords.
This unauthorized access raised serious concerns about the security of personal and sensitive data across various devices and systems. The industry was prompted to take immediate action to develop and deploy patches and updates to safeguard against these far-reaching security risks.
What is Meltdown and Spectre security vulnerabilities?
Meltdown and Spectre are processor security flaws exploiting an architectural technique known as “speculative execution” which has been designed into chips for decades. These days computers are designed to perform tasks as fast as they can. In the process of delivering faster results processors are designed in a way that they can anticipate user actions make necessary calculations and keep the results in the cache for faster results.This process of anticipating results beforehand is called speculative execution.
Taking advantage of this attackers executes a malicious code into the system where they make processors anticipate wrong paths or branches and get valuable information like passwords, protected files, etc. Normally processors anticipate various results or paths and as the user moves forward it dumps the wrong paths or unnecessary results. Attackers retrieve these wrong paths or dumped information and access it for a long time. This can be business critical data which can be used to cause serious security breaches to the company.
Am I affected by Meltdown and Spectre?
Almost the whole industry has been affected by it from the major chip manufacturers, OS companies and cloud providers. Chip manufacturers(Intel, AMD, ARM) has confirmed they their chips are vulnerable to this attack. Also, all the operating system Linux, Windows, macOS, Android has been affected. Basically, all the computers designed for more than 20 years have affected by this including our mobile phones. They only devices that have not been impacted are the IOT (Internet of Things) devices i.e devices that are based on Artificial Intelligence as they work on the concept of edge computing.
How can I protect Myself from Meltdown and Spectre attacks ?
To protect yourself from Meltdown and Spectre attacks, it is crucial to promptly update your operating system with the latest patches released by the software companies. These updates may not completely eliminate the risk, but they provide a temporary fix to mitigate the vulnerabilities. It’s essential to prioritize security over potential performance impacts, as these patches may make your processor slightly slower due to the limitation on branch predictions.
In the long term, the key to addressing this issue lies in designing the next generation of processors in a way that eliminates this loophole. Future processors should be built with enhanced security features to prevent similar vulnerabilities and ensure safer computing experiences for users. Keeping your system up to date and staying informed about advancements in processor technology will help you maintain a more secure digital environment.
What has Diadem done to mitigate the Spectre and Meltdown CPU Security flaws?
We at Diadem Technologies to mitigate the attack have implemented the following patches :
Linux Server:
We have updated our Linux servers with the yum update command and the specific updates to patch this vulnerability is specified below:
- kernel-headers.x86_64 0:3.10.0-693.11.6.el7
- kernel-tools.x86_64 0:3.10.0-693.11.6.el7
- kernel-tools-libs.x86_64 0:3.10.0-693.11.6.el7
- perf.x86_64 0:3.10.0-693.11.6.el7
- python-perf.x86_64 0:3.10.0-693.11.6.el7
- kernel.x86_64 0:3.10.0-693.11.6.el7
- kernel-devel.x86_64 0:3.10.0-693.11.6.el7
Windows Server:
Most of our servers are running updated versions of Windows 2012 R2 / 2016 OS, which are already patched by Microsoft. If you are using Windows Server Update Services (WSUS), you can conveniently manage and deploy these updates across your server infrastructure. Additionally, Intel has released a testing tool for identifying vulnerabilities in a server OS.
For servers running any unsupported older OS, the firmware update for the motherboard is available from both Supermicro and Intel, ensuring that affected servers are appropriately patched. By diligently applying these updates and patches, you can bolster the security of your server environment and protect against potential Meltdown and Spectre vulnerabilities.
Also Antivirus software have provided updated version to catchup with this updates by Microsoft and server hardware manufactures.
Also Antivirus software have provided updated version to catchup with this updates by Microsoft and server hardware manufactures.
Rest assured, we will ensure that our servers are continuously being monitored for security and critical patches and applied on a proactive basis.
Also Antivirus software have provided updated version to catchup with this updates by Microsoft and server hardware manufactures.
Protect your data from Meltdown and Spectre CPU flaws.
Contact us and Secure your data now
