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Intel issues warning of Variant 4 Spectre vulnerability

The Meltdown/Spectre issue continues.

Intel has released a new report out describing what the chip maker is calling a Spectre-like vulnerability dubbed Variant 4. Like the Spectre and Meltdown vulnerabilities from earlier this year, Variant 4 exploits the CPU’s speculative execution mechanism so hackers can potentially get at sensitive information on your computer.

The Intel security report states the following:

Systems with microprocessors utilizing speculative execution and speculative execution of memory reads before the addresses of all prior memory writes are known may allow unauthorized disclosure of information to an attacker with local user access via a side-channel analysis.

A large number of the exploits that Variant 4 takes advantage of have been patched already and Intel has a patch available for device manufacturers, although that’s still a beta.

Apple has already responded to Spectre and Meltdown-related issues with patches for the Mac, iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, and Apple TV. It’s also likely that we’ll see a patch for Variant 4 soon.

Stay tuned for additional details as they become available.

Via The Mac Observer and Intel