Intel finds another chip exploit, says fix in place

Bloomberg

Intel Corp, the biggest maker of computer processors, said it found another way to attack computers related to the chip security flaws announced earlier this year. The means to protect against the vulnerability is already in place and there is no evidence of it having been used to hack computers, Intel said in a statement on its website.
“We have not seen any reports of this method being used in real-world exploits,” the company said in the statement. “Moreover, there are multiple ways for consumers and IT professionals to safeguard their systems against potential exploits, including browser-based mitigations that
have already been deployed and are available for use today.”
Earlier this year, there was widespread concern in the computer industry after the revelation by researchers at Alphabet Inc.’s Google of ways to use features of microprocessors to gain illicit access to data such as encryption keys and passwords that were thought to be safely guarded by hardware. The Spectre and Meltdown vulnerabilities led to frantic work by Intel and its computer-maker partners to put in place software code to protect systems.
The world’s second-biggest chipmaker was forced to apologise and explain that the mitigations may slow down machines in some circumstances. Since then there have been no reports of the vulnerabilities being exploited and, importantly for investors, no evidence that security concerns have affected computer purchases.