Intel 'Zombieload' security hole impacts in just about every PC as well as servers

The same researchers found the Intel Specter and Meltdown flaws which sent Intel and the whole tech industry to Intel chips. And they say this vulnerability, named ZombieLoad, impacts PCs and servers of all flavors if they run Intel chips.

The good news is that the researchers have already reported it to Intel and other vendors, and the security patches are being issued.

Intel has already patched several of its current processors, and it released microcode that will patch others, it tells Business Insider. Among the Intel chips that are vulnerable are the Xeon, Broadwell, Sandy Bridge, Skylake, Haswell chips, Kaby Lake, Lake Coffee, Whiskey Lake, Cascade Lake, Atom and Knights processors, the company reported.

Intel has given this vulnerability a security rating of "medium." Apple and Microsoft PC makers have also issued patches. Google has browser makers and Mozilla.

While all of this sounds like a yawn – just another hole in the process – it is creating a hubbub because it is another example of an entirely new type of security that impacts modern processors. It follows the discovery of the so-called Meltdown, Spectrum, and Foreshadow holes in processors, which came to light last year.

And there is a lot of vulnerable Intel processors out there in the world that need to be patched. However, chips that have already been patched from the spectrum are less vulnerable to ZombieLoad, Intel says.

ZombieLoad is eye-popping because it allows hackers to see things like browser, website content, user keys, and passwords, or system-level secrets, such as disk encryption keys. In other words, it can give you the keys to the secrets of your computer. And it can be used on PCs and servers, even those in the cloud, and the big cloud vendors like Microsoft and Google.

An Intel spokesperson explains that the company is already aware of this new security hole, which has the technical name of Microarchitectural Data Sampling (MDS):

"Microarchitectural Data Sampling (MDS) is already addressed to the hardware of our 8th and 9th Generation Intel Core Processors, as well as the 2nd Generation Intel Xeon Scalable Processor Family. , coupled with corresponding updates to operating system and hypervisor software that are available starting today.

We are providing more information on our website and continue to encourage everyone to keep their systems up to date. We'd like to extend our opinion to those who are working with us and our industry partners for their contributions to the joint disclosure of these issues. "

Michael Schwarz, Moritz Lipp, Daniel Gruss (of the Graz University of Technology) and Jo Van Bulck (of the computer science research group at KU Leuven university)

These guys are becoming so famous in the world that they have become a Twitter internet meme.