Vulnerability in older Intel CPUs gives away the keys to the kingdom
The PC enthusiast community is often on edge about the latest software security holes and how people exploit them. We read about how developers close those vulnerabilities, and it seems like it's a never-ending cycle. What if the deepest, most private parts of your PC's hardware had years-old vulnerabilities that hadn't been detected, though? That nightmare is real. At Black Hat last week, researcher Christopher Domas demonstrated that security measures built into the hardware of some older Intel CPUs can be bypassed with a carefully-crafted attack.
CPUs use different security levels, called rings, for code execution. Code running in a given ring can access data and processes in less-privileged modes, but those less-privileged areas cannot reach back into the more privileged rings. Ring 0 is where the operating ...