Two major flaws in computer chips (dubbed Meltdown and Spectre) could leave a huge number of computers and smartphones vulnerable to security concerns. The flaws could allow an attacker to read sensitive data stored in the memory, like passwords, or look at what tabs someone has open on their computer, and everyone can be affected.
Researchers discovered Meltdown and Spectre last week. Daniel Gruss, a researcher from Graz University of Technology who helped identify the flaw, said it may be difficult to execute an attack, but billions of devices were impacted. In fact, Apple has said that all Macs and iOS devices have been somehow impacted by these chip flaws.
According to CNN Tech, the flaws exist in processors, the building blocks of computers that act as the brain. Modern processors are designed to perform something called “speculative execution.” That means they predict what tasks they will be asked to execute and rapidly access multiple areas of memory at the same time.
But Joe Joseph of the Daily Sheeple believes that this is a very big deal and one that hasn’t really gotten much time on the mainstream media’s news cycle. “Is it fear mongering?” Joseph asks. “Maybe. Maybe not.”
The chips themselves need to be replaced to completely fix this problem. Which is part of the larger issue, considering the Intel chips are found in everything from personal computers to medical equipment. Researchers say that almost every computing system, including desktops, laptops, smartphones, and cloud servers, is affected by the Spectre bug. Meltdown appears to be specific to Intel (INTC) chips. “More specifically, all modern processors capable of keeping many instructions in flight are potentially vulnerable. In particular, we have verified Spectre on Intel, AMD, and ARM processors,” the researchers said.
“This seems to me to be a little fishy,” Joseph says. “I think at its core, we are subject to vulnerabilities on various things; whether it be software, whether it be hardware, we’re always subjected to these vulnerabilities. Not to mention, how many backdoors have been built into existing software, brought to you by Microsoft and Google and other manufacturers where government has basically demanded that these backdoors be put in there. I mean, we allow it anyway.“
That is not to say this is not important, Joseph says. The fix is just so “gargantuan” in nature, adding to trepidations. “I don’t know if anybody’s checked, but processor chips aren’t cheap,” Joseph adds. Then he continues, saying: “Think about this…”
“China owns 90% of the rare earth elements mined in the world. 90%! A lot of these chips rely on rare earth elements to be manufactured. Now, we are beholden to China to get the resources to replace all these chips. That’s gonna take time. So, there’s a lot of things here that kinda smell fishy to me,” Joseph said.
There are plenty of red flags surrounding this vulnerability. Joseph only mentions a few, but it should not be taken lightly. There are government officials and perhaps deep state officials as well, already neck deep in the waters of potentiality. This appears to be fear mongering at its finest, but that doesn’t negate the fact that everyone should keep an eye on Spectre and Meltdown.
cheese or patty melt? i am for that!
Gandhi, you’re making me hungry. I LOVE a patty melt with cheese.
those flaws are there by design. the are the govts back door silly.
And if not by the governments – by the manufacturers themselves. Ever build a house? I have. And back-doors don’t happen by accident. They’re planned into the overall design. I figure we’ve all been monitored since the inception of the ‘net. Better to think that than some rose-tinted glasses thought process.
yes but i think it is part of their secret spying laws to have the means to spy or shut down industry and blame the Norks
And everyone can be affected…but the deep state
and its players ..right?
sure no one wants this .. but , if it uncovers the corruption and criminal acts of our government and its players …would that be acceptable?
would seeing HiLIARy go to prison, Obama, Reid, etc.. etc.. be worth it?
MW, I can live with it exposing all of the shenanigans of the deep state.
yes, i have been more affraid of this back door into the chips than an EMP. if i was afraid of anything except the utter destruction the NRA has wrought on the minds of idiots.
Some processors are not affected by either of these flaws. My Raspberry Pi3 with an A53 ARM is good to go at least from a hardware point of view. Be sure update whatever OS you may be running when the software patches are implemented. I love my Pi for just web browsing and low power computing in general.
Why doesn’t this mention that the fix is in… (HAHA) – they already have a software patch to fix this! Yes it will slow the processor, but most do not use it 100% anyway. And if you did have a spreadsheet with 65,000 cells filled, and changed cell #2, it will take 2.1 seconds to recalculate instead of 1.7 seconds. Maybe.
So, when these computers are trashed for being old (many in 3 years) the problem goes away anyway.
Speed degradation depend on how many syscalls an application does. Some apps can be really slowed down.
It a way for Corporations to get everyone to buy new computers so they can profit from this issues. Anybody want to buy into chip stocks such as amd and intel?
Yohan, I’ve got computers MORE than 3 years old.
At one time, they were talking about computers having an individual number that would be encoded into any software created on that particular computer. The idea was that they could use that number to identify the computer used to develop viruses. Did they ever develop that?
When the Government leans on software and technical people to do something in a certain way, those people are supposed to trust that the Government won’t abuse it. If it is possible to abuse trust, it will be abused by someone.
yes every computer chip AND motherboard must have an identification number. just like your vehicle VIN or license plate or birth certificate or refridgerator or gun “thanks NRA” or SSN or work badge number or bank account or… get real alice in wonderland, just because some engineer spilled the beans on the back door recently doesn’t mean it hasnt always been this way.
My birth certificate does not have a number on it. That’s just a Youtube myth.
It would just give them the ability cause for everyone to be updated so as to welcome in more advance tec to watch and monitor everyone and thing. Dont drink kool aid its made with piss…
Just like the previous article about facial recognition gotta get everyone on board.. woo woo the train is leaving the station
I’d rather go back to old telephones and telephone booths outside the home than be constantly spied upon.
Me too, Alhambra. (Spell check – lol)
_
Who here suspects that “meltdown” and “spectre” are not FLAWS, Rather, that they are what we used to call “backdoors”?
Seems as likely as not, to me.
Just to show my age the Motorola 68XXX didn’t have these problems. It was a superior design to the INTEL hardware. Had the 68XXX survived and evolved, I suspect we would not have this problem.
Better yet go with FPGA where you can easily change the “personality” of your computer, by downloading the core.
Xilinx and Altera are big in this field.
I guess in the end it comes down to a speed, security, and cost tradeoff.
Smells like Y2K
I wonder if this flaw exists in older processors. I built my computer 6 or 7 years ago. Perhaps it’s okay. It only has the software I want on it.
People are mixing up software with hardware. It’s not a software issue. Period. It’s a hardware issue. And it’s not that big of a deal anyway as most buy new computers every 4-5 years, hence a new chip. Anyone here still running an Intel Pentium processor when there’s now an I7, which is like a dozen versions later now. Heck Pentium was what….2003?
The problem is they aren’t sure how to make a chip that doesn’t allow the bug. When a processor turns on there’s a small time frame when it starts that allows you to access files that you aren’t supposed to access. As soon as it’s booted up fully the issue is fixed. The reason is parallel processing. that means the chip is performing a lot of functions all at the same time instead of doing them one at a time like the used to. That’s what makes it fast. The temporary “fix” is to prevent parallel processing, which then makes your phone run slow.
most tech companies think it’s going to be a few years before they can figure out how to make new chips that don’t allow access to files at startup.