Intel shares dip after report of design flaw
A design flaw in Intel's processor chips could allow malware and hackers to more easily exploit other security bugs, according to a report overnight.
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Intel Corp.
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12:15 19/04/24
The design flaw, understood to be present in Intel processors built within the last decade, has forced a "significant redesign" of Linux and Windows kernels in order to correct the chip-level security bug, according to a report from the Register website.
As well as potentially allowing malware and hackers to more easily exploit other security bugs, the flaw could be abused to read the contents of the kernel's memory, meaning all sorts of secrets, such as passwords, login keys and cached files, could be viewable to any user or malicious software on a shared public cloud server.
"Programmers are scrambling to overhaul the open-source Linux kernel's virtual memory system," the Register said. "Crucially, these updates to both Linux and Windows will incur a performance hit on Intel products."
AMD, which saw its shares rise 7% during pre-market trading on Wednesday, said its chips had not been affected by the security issue.
As of 1510 GMT, Intel shares had dropped 2.03% to $45.90 each.