Security flaws put all phones, computers at risk
FRANKFURT/SANFRANCISCO: Security researchers on Wednesday disclosed a set of security flaws that they said could let hackers steal sensitive i nformation from nearly every modern computing device containing chips from Intel Corp., Advanced Micro Devices Inc. and ARM Holdings.
One of the bugs is specific to Intel but another affects laptops, desktop computers, smartphones, tablets and internet servers alike.
Intel and ARM insisted that the issue was not a design flaw, but it will require users to download a patch and update their operating system to fix it.
“Phones, PCS, everything are going to have some impact, but it’ll vary from product to product,” Intel CEO Brian Krzanich said in an interview with CNBC on Wednesday.
Researchers with Alphabet Inc.’s Google Project Zero, in conjunction with academic and industry researchers from several countries, discovered two flaws.
The first, called Meltdown, affects Intel chips and lets hackers bypass the hardware barrier between applications run by users and the computer’s memory, potentially letting hackers read a computer’s memory and steal passwords.
The second, called Spectre, affects chips from Intel, AMD and ARM and lets hackers potentially trick otherwise error-free applications into giving up secret information.
The researchers said Apple Inc. and Microsoft Corp. had patches ready for users of desktop computers affected by Meltdown. Microsoft declined to com- ment, and Apple did not immediately return requests for comment.
Daniel Gruss, a researcher at Graz University of Technology who discovered Meltdown, called it “probably one of the worst CPU bugs ever found”, in an interview with Gruss said Meltdown was the more serious problem in the short term but could be decisively stopped with software patches. Spectre, the broader bug that applies to nearly all computing devices, is harder for hackers to take advantage of but less eas-
ily patched and will be a bigger problem in the long term, he said.
Speaking to CNBC, Intel’s Krzanich said Google researchers told Intel of the flaws “a while ago” and that Intel had been testing fixes that device makers who use its chips will push out next week. The flaws were first reported by tech publication The Register. It also reported that the updates to fix the problems could causes Intel chips to operate 5-30% more slowly. Intel denied that the patches would bog down computers based on Intel chips.
“Intel has begun providing software and firmware updates to mitigate these exploits,” Intel said in a statement.
ARM spokesman Phil Hughes said that patches had already been shared with the companies’ partners, which include many smartphone manufacturers.
AMD chips are also affected by at least one variant of a set of security flaws but that it can be patched with a software update. The company said it believes there “is near zero risk to AMD products at this time”.