Microsoft, Google Researchers Discover New Chip Flaws

Cybersecurity researchers from Google and Microsoft announced this week a new chip bug called Speculative Store Bypass or “Variant 4” which is related to the Spectre and Meltdown flaws discovered in January.

The bug, which was given a low risk rating by the researchers, is said to affect a broad swatch of chips from Intel, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), and ARM Holdings. It carries with it a vulnerability that may allow attackers to access passwords and other sensitive data on chips, but the probability of such attack is highly unlikely.

Patches have already been made available from both manufacturers and software suppliers. However, Intel said that it will be shipping its chips with the patches turned off by default while AMD advised its customers to leave the patches turned off.

 

Source: Reuters