Specter V2: a new vulnerability for Intel and ARM processors
VUSec, a cybersecurity research group, has discovered a new vulnerability similar to Specter. It affects all Intel and ARM processors, including the latest generation, such as Alder Lake and Rocket Lake.
At the moment, the exploit has only been demonstrated at the proof-of-concept level, and the processors that have received microcode updates for Specter in the past also seem to be vulnerable.
With Specter V2, an attacker can gain kernel-level access and steal sensitive information, such as passwords or encryption keys.
Intel has already announced that it will provide updates to close the exploits, but has not announced a deadline. Most likely, the updates will be provided by the motherboard manufacturers through new versions of BIOS and will come with performance penalties.
As for ARM processors, those with Cortex A15, A57, A72, Neoverse V1, N1 and N2 cores have been confirmed as vulnerable, but nothing is known about those with custom cores, such as those on Qualcomm SoCs. yet.
It is recommended to disable eBPF support on Intel processor systems. AMD processors are not vulnerable.