Spectre ghost malware software#

Spectre ghost malware software#

The good news is, software patches for Windows, Mac, and Linux can stop Meltdown. However, it is possible to prevent specific known exploits based on Spectre through software patches. Spectre is harder to exploit than Meltdown, but it is also harder to mitigate. In fact, the safety checks of said best practices actually increase the attack surface and may make applications more susceptible to Spectre It allows an attacker to trick error-free programs, which follow best practices, into leaking their secrets. Spectre breaks the isolation between different applications. Luckily, there are software patches against Meltdown. This applies both to personal computers as well as cloud infrastructure. If your computer has a vulnerable processor and runs an unpatched operating system, it is not safe to work with sensitive information without the chance of leaking the information. This attack allows a program to access the memory, and thus also the secrets, of other programs and the operating system. Meltdown breaks the most fundamental isolation between user applications and the operating system. Spooky! The official (simplified) explanation of each bug is listed below. Meltdown is represented by a melting shield, while Spectre is a ghost wielding a stick.

What's the worst that could happen? Well, your data and passwords could leak and you are almost powerless to stop it.Īs is the trend nowadays, these vulnerabilities have cool names, their own website, and of course, fancy logos. Seriously, folks, this is very bad - it is like the computing apocalypse. This vulnerability is called 'Spectre,' and it has the potential to put the entire technology industry into a tailspin. You see, yet another vulnerability has been revealed that impacts all modern processors, such as those from Intel, AMD, and yeah, even ARM chips. If you have an AMD processor, you are safe, right? Yes, but not really. To make matters worse, patching that vulnerability - now known as 'Meltdown' - would cause an up-to 30 percent performance degradation. Earlier today, we reported on some shocking news - there is a serious vulnerability that affects Intel processors.