Earlier this month, it became known about the discovery of a new critical vulnerability in Intel processors, which was called "Spoiler". The specialists who identified the problem reported that AMD and ARM processors are not susceptible to it. Now, AMD has confirmed that due to the architectural features of Spoiler, it does not pose a threat to its processors.
As in the case of the Specter and Meltdown vulnerabilities, a new problem lies in the implementation of speculative instruction execution mechanisms in Intel processors. In AMD chips, this mechanism is implemented differently, in particular, they use a different approach to managing operations in RAM and cache. More specifically, Spoiler can access partial address information (above 11 bits of the address) during download operations. And AMD processors do not use partial address matches above address bit 11 when resolving boot conflicts.
It is important to note that although Spoiler, like Specter, relies on the mechanism of speculative command execution, it will not be possible to close a new vulnerability with existing “patches” from previous exploits. That is, the current Intel processors need new patches that can again affect the performance of the chips. And in the future, Intel, of course, will require corrections at the architecture level. AMD, on the other hand, will not have to take such actions.
In the end, we note that Spoiler affects all Intel processors, from the first generation Core chips to the current Coffee Lake Refresh, as well as Cascade Lake and Ice Lake, which have not yet been released. Despite the fact that Intel itself was notified of the problem in early December last year, and more than ten days have passed since the public disclosure of Spoiler, Intel has not presented possible solutions to the problem and has not even made an official statement on this matter. .
Source: 3dnews.ru