AMD Processor Vulnerabilities Discovered

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kernel exploits

Wired

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‘Sinkclose’ Flaw in Hundreds of Millions of AMD Chips Allows Deep, Virtually Unfixable Infections

Summary

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66% Informative

Hackers have found a vulnerability in AMD chips they're calling Sinkclose .

The flaw would allow hackers to run their own code in one of the most privileged modes of an AMD processor.

The vulnerability affects virtually all AMD chips dating back to 2006 , or possibly even earlier.

AMD declined to answer questions in advance about how it intends to fix the flaw.

In AMD -based machines, a safeguard known as TSeg prevents operating systems from writing to a protected part of memory reserved for System Management Mode known as System Management Random Access Memory or SMRAM .

AMD 's TClose feature is designed to allow computers to remain compatible with older devices that use the same memory addresses as SMRAM , remapping other memory to those SMRAM addresses when it's enabled.

With only the operating system's level of privileges, researchers could trick the SMM code into fetching data they've tampered with, in a way that allows them to redirect the processor.

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