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Week 4 Blog: Meltdown and Spectre

Recently, four different teams of researchers found significant vulnerabilities which affect nearly all computers, Windows and Macs, iPhone, and iPad. This gap has to do with what is called "speculative execution" (Peter Bright, 2018) by the processor within the machine. What speculative execution is the processor trying to "maximize performance, they try to execute instructions even before it is certain that those instructions need to be executed. (Peter Bright, 2018)" How this present a security gap is it allows potentially malicious code to see these instructions before they are needed. Additionally, the code can bypass any security checks due to the fact it is trying to queue the instructions before it really needs to execute it.
As mentioned before, this vulnerability has affected all major computer and smartphone companies. They have all responded in various ways. Intel which is the company most impacted by this discovery has recommended operations system fix in order to remediate this situation. Microsoft has a variety of fixes since this was disclosed to them back in the fall of 2017, which are out or will be coming out soon. Apple has announced all current machines and devices as long as they are up to date on the patches are safe.
To be clear, I selected some of the more recognizable brand names who are having to deal with this situation. This is affecting everyone. Major processors manufacturers such AMD and ARM, who compete with Intel, are having to figure this out as well. Two well-written articles I would recommend are "Meltdown and Spectre: Here’s what Intel, Apple, Microsoft, others are doing about it" on the Ars Technica site and "Triple Meltdown: How so Many Researchers found a 20-year-old chip Flaw at the Same Time" on Wired site. We'll continue to write about this as more information is released.


Research

Greenberg, A. (2018, January 07). How So Many Researchers Found a 20-Year-Old Chip Flaw At Once. Retrieved January 07, 2018, from https://www.wired.com/story/meltdown-spectre-bug-collision-intel-chip-flaw-discovery/


Peter Bright - Jan 5, 2018 1:52 pm UTC. (2018, January 05). Meltdown and Spectre: Here’s what Intel, Apple, Microsoft, others are doing about it. Retrieved January 07, 2018, from https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2018/01/meltdown-and-spectre-heres-what-intel-apple-microsoft-others-are-doing-about-it/

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