Security flaws put computers, phones at risk

Technology companies are scrambling to fix serious security flaws affecting computer processors built by Intel and other chipmakers and found in many of the world’s personal computers and smartphones.

The two hardware bugs discovered can be exploited to allow the memory content of a computer to be leaked. Such a leak could potentially expose stored passwords and other sensitive data, including personal photos, emails and instant messages.

Researchers at Google’s Project Zero and at academic institutions, including the Graz University of Technology in Austria, discovered the problem last year and disclosed it Wednesday.

There’s no evidence that bad actors have yet exploited the bugs, but companies including Microsoft and Apple said they are releasing software patches to protect against one of the bugs. Researchers say the other is harder to fix and “will haunt us for quite some time.”

Intel is at the center of the problem because it supplies the processors used in many of the world’s personal computers.. Researchers say one of the bugs, called Meltdown, affects nearly every processor it has made since the mid-1990s.

While security flaws are typically limited to a specific company or product, Intel says the problem is “not a bug or a flaw in Intel products” but rather a broader problem affecting processing techniques common to modern computing platforms.

Both the chipmaker and Google, which informed Intel about the vulnerability in June, said they were planning to disclose the issue next week when fixes will be available. Tech companies typically withhold details about security problems until fixes are available so that hackers won’t have a roadmap to exploit the flaws. But in this case, Intel was forced to disclose the problem Wednesday after British technology site The Register reported it, causing Intel’s stock to fall.

Most of the immediate fixes will be limited to the Meltdown bug. The other, Spectre, is harder to fix but also harder to exploit, making it less of an immediate threat to consumer devices.

While researchers say the Meltdown bug is limited to Intel processors, they have verified Spectre as a problem for Intel, Advanced Micro Devices and ARM processors. AMD chips are common in personal computers. ARM chips are found in many smartphones and other internet-connected products, including cars and home appliances.