More Intel speculative execution vulnerabilities (mdsattacks.com)

Article summary

Researchers have discovered new Intel CPU vulnerabilities, known as Microarchitectural Data Sampling (MDS) attacks, which allow attackers to leak private data across security boundaries. These vulnerabilities, including RIDL and Fallout, affect all modern Intel CPUs and can be exploited to steal sensitive data, despite existing mitigations. The attacks are difficult to mitigate and may require significant performance trade-offs. Intel has provided microcode updates and recommendations for mitigation strategies.

Main themes

• Intel CPU vulnerabilities
• Speculative execution attacks
• Security mitigations
• Performance trade-offs
• AMD vs Intel

What commenters say

• Intel's failure to properly address speculative execution vulnerabilities is a result of poor design and a culture of complacency.
• Abandoning speculative execution entirely is not a viable solution, but rather a more nuanced approach to security is needed.
• AMD's more risk-averse design approach has helped the company avoid similar vulnerabilities, making it a more secure choice for some users.
• The performance costs of mitigating these vulnerabilities are significant, and may be as high as 10% or more, depending on the workload.
• Intel's problems with security are systemic and will take many years to resolve, if they can be resolved at all.
• The death of a company is inevitable, and allowing companies to fail gracefully can be beneficial for innovation and preventing monopolies.
• Disabling Simultaneous Multi-Threading (SMT) can significantly reduce the impact of MDS-based attacks, but may not completely eliminate the vulnerability.