The news sounds bad at first blush: Researchers from Nvidia and Princeton University have discovered fresh ways to exploit the Meltdown and Spectre CPU vulnerabilities present in every modern computer processor. But while the new MeltdownPrime and SpectrePrime attacks prove that the initial exploits aren’t necessarily the only way to trigger the vulnerabilities lurking inside chips, everyday computer users shouldn’t freak out about them.
The new vulnerabilities pit the multiple CPU cores inside modern processors against each other and take advantage of the way memory cache access works in multi-core systems. The Register’s synopsis and the research paper have more in-depth technical details if you want them. Like Meltdown and Spectre, a successful attack can extract sensitive information, including passwords.
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