Millions of computers using Intel chips are prone to hacking because of a flaw that went unnoticed for a decade, it has emerged.
A security flaw in Intel's processors' chips has forced to redesign the millions of the computers using Linux and Windows kernels to bypass the chip-level security bug.
The flaw remained unnoticed for a decade. For past two months, Programmers were busy to patch the Linux kernel’s virtual memory system so that the bug in the Intel CPUs could not let hackers exploit the security flaws. Through this flaw, hackers could easily security keys, passwords, and files cached from a disk.
According to the Register reports, software updates are required for both Windows and Linux systems, and performance of a machine will be affected.
"Crucially, these updates to both Linux and Windows will incur a performance hit on Intel products," The Register wrote (bit.ly/2CsRxkj).
“The effects are being benchmarked, however, we are looking at a ballpark figure of a five to 30 percent slowdown, depending on the task and the processor model.”
Competing chip maker AMD has confirmed that their processors are not vulnerable to this type of security bug. “AMD processors are not subject to the types of attacks that the kernel page table isolation feature protects against,” explains Tom Lendacky, an AMD engineer.
A security flaw in Intel's processors' chips has forced to redesign the millions of the computers using Linux and Windows kernels to bypass the chip-level security bug.
The flaw remained unnoticed for a decade. For past two months, Programmers were busy to patch the Linux kernel’s virtual memory system so that the bug in the Intel CPUs could not let hackers exploit the security flaws. Through this flaw, hackers could easily security keys, passwords, and files cached from a disk.
According to the Register reports, software updates are required for both Windows and Linux systems, and performance of a machine will be affected.
"Crucially, these updates to both Linux and Windows will incur a performance hit on Intel products," The Register wrote (bit.ly/2CsRxkj).
“The effects are being benchmarked, however, we are looking at a ballpark figure of a five to 30 percent slowdown, depending on the task and the processor model.”
Competing chip maker AMD has confirmed that their processors are not vulnerable to this type of security bug. “AMD processors are not subject to the types of attacks that the kernel page table isolation feature protects against,” explains Tom Lendacky, an AMD engineer.