Meltdown and Spectre: Key Facts and How To Protect Your Device Guide
Meltdown and Spectre have been the center of the discussions lately. The descriptions of both hardware bugs are quite vague, but let’s try to understand what are the main threats of this issue.
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In simple words
Source: blogspot.com
The reason why everybody is so concerned about the so-called “chipocalypse” is that it affects greatly almost all of the world’s computer processors, mobile devices, and the cloud.
Both Meltdown and Spectre are the hardware bugs that create an opportunity for hackers to take an advantage of the multiple vulnerabilities of Intel, AMD and ARM processors.
So, what’s the problem?
Meltdown
Scientifically speaking, Meltdown is an exploitation technique known as CVE-2017-5754 or “rogue data cache load.”
Meltdown allows an application to read any computer memory, including kernel memory. It’s actually “melts” security boundaries and lets other devices to steal sensitive data, for instance, passwords.
Spectre
And again, a few fancy words.
Spectre is known as CVE-2017-5753 or “bounds check bypass,” and CVE-2017-5715 or “branch target injection.”
Specter with the help of a gap between the programs allows the hacker to read information from other applications.
How to protect your device
Source: bbci.co.uk
Apple has become a part of the chipocalypse too. They promised to release new updates to the operating systems to protect users from possible threats.
They also recommend using only trusted sources to download software, for instance, App Store.
The Verge introduced a checklist to ensure the safety of your PC:
Fortunately, Google and Microsoft have been working on the solution as well. They began releasing patches for both Meltdown and Spectre.
Microsoft launched an update for Windows 10 devices that was installed automatically.
Android also didn’t wait to release security updates to protect its devices from the above-mentioned problems.
See also:
- One More Thing: Apple Confirms All Mac and iOS Devices Are Victims of Meltdown and Spectre
- Why 2018 Will Be a Really Tough Year for Apple: 5 Reasons
- New HUGE iPhone X Bug with Facial Recognition and How to Fix It
