Transactions can be performed within a secure framework which is inaccessible to any malware that might be present on a system - until now.

One of those applications is the cryptocurrency startup 'Ledger', which uses the SGX technology to secure blockchain transactions such as buying or selling cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin or Monero. Intel's SGX technology is part of all their modern processors, but is only used by a selected range of applications. According to Intel, the microcode updates which address the Foreshadow attacks have no impact on the CPU's performance. Intel provides comprehensive information around Foreshadow in their newsroom. In Linux systems, the microcode is automatically loaded into the CPU registers.

In case there is no support from those anymore, you can still get them through Microsoft's update catalog. Intel's microcode updates are usually delivered either via mainboard manufacturers or system builders. Remember, many predicted after Meltdown and Spectre that 'everybody' would eventually make use of the attack - we have not seen any evidence of this happening in reality.РІР‚Сљ As far as we are aware, there is no malware which makes use of this highly complex attack. РІР‚С›Intel has also stated that those mitigation measures will eventually find their way into the manufacturing process. Microcode updates which mitigate the issue have been delivered a while ago, so there is no reason to panic', says G DATA Security Evangelist Tim Berghoff. The good news is that manufacturers are not completely unprepared. It is therefore understandable that people are very concerned. 'The attacks described in the research affect a large number of systems all over the world. However, home users are not in any immediate danger. The attacks described in the paper are technically very complex and impressive. This method is used to expedite certain processes by preloading specific instructions which have not yet been requested. Several components can be attacked - similar to what Meltdown and Spectre do, an attacker could leverage what is called 'speculative execution'. Unlike Meltdown/Spectre, which require administrator permissions to carry out the attack, regular user permissions are sufficient for Foreshadow. The fact of the matter is that Foreshadow does not require elevated privileges in order to work. If you are interested in the details of this, we recommend reading the research paper titled РІР‚С› Foreshadow: Extracting the keys to the Intel SGX Kingdom with Transient Out-of-Order ExecutionРІР‚Сљ (PDF document, opens in a new window). In all, there are three variants to attack the security architecture. This is especially problematic in cloud environments, where a would-be attacker could potentially access a memory area assigned to a different virtual machine hosted on the same physical hardware. Just as the attacks discovered earlier this year, Foreshadow puts an unauthorized user in a position to access memory areas which he would not normally have access to. The details are very complex and have numerous parallels to Meltdown and Spectre (see also our blog article on Meltdown and Spectre).

Windows update catalog 08-2018 updates