Intel is a leading CPU maker for PCs in the computer industry. The second major CPU maker is AMD or Advanced Micro Devices. Now, a report floating on the Internet claims that there has been a major security flaw in the design of Intel’s Processors since last ten years. This flaw was recently spotted and is reported to be a major compromise to the security of a PC. No matter what operating system a machine is running, no matter if it is Microsoft’s Windows operating system, a flavor of Linux operating system or Apple’s MacOS, all are vulnerable by this security flaw.
Intel processors result in in Kernal Memory Leaks
The report mentions that due to this flaw, any program (if intended to) can access the Kernal Memory. The kernel is the most core and powerful unit in the architecture layer of the operating system, this flaw or unauthorized access to this delicate zone may compromise the overall security of the user’s data. The CPU enforces some restrictions and privileges to certain programs and controls how the program is able to interact with the Kernal to execute tasks. This flaw would also allow the web pages were running Javascript code to take advantage of this flaw and perform unauthorized interaction with the Kernal. Ultimately, this will compromise the security.
To fix this, the Kernal Memory has to be separated from the user process using Kernal Page Table Isolation. Experts say that this process might slow down the overall performance of the device.
Elaborating on what experts say, the decline in performance that may occur in the device, after the patch is applied may range from 5% to 30%. This will vary from what CPU is being patched and what generation of the CPU is the patch being applied to.
Now, the people who are using AMD CPUs are not affected by this flaw at all. As mentioned above, only the machines using the Intel CPUs are affected and are left vulnerable. But as reports say, patches are coming in the form of updates to Windows Operating System by Microsoft and different flavors of Linux. We currently have no official statement from Apple regarding the rollout of the patch for MacOS, but we expect that coming pretty soon.
