tl;dr
In a recent academic breakthrough, researchers have exposed a severe vulnerability within Apple’s M-series chips, primarily affecting the security of crypto assets. This flaw, deeply ingrained in the microarchitecture, enables attackers to access secret keys during cryptographic operations. At the...
In a recent academic breakthrough, researchers have exposed a severe vulnerability within Apple’s M-series chips, primarily affecting the security of crypto assets. This flaw, deeply ingrained in the microarchitecture, enables attackers to access secret keys during cryptographic operations.
At the heart of this vulnerability is the data memory-dependent prefetcher (DMP) in these chips. This feature aims to predict and pre-load data, thus minimizing CPU and memory latency. However, the DMP’s unique behavior can mistakenly interpret memory content as pointer addresses, leading to unintended data leakage through side channels.
Experts like Boru Chen and Yingchen Wang explain that attackers can exploit this prefetcher’s behavior and execute the GoFetch attack. Remarkably, GoFetch does not require root access to execute, operating with standard user privileges on macOS systems. The attack has proven effective against both conventional and quantum-resistant encryption methods, extracting keys within a timeframe that varies by cryptographic protocol. Developers must implement robust defenses against this vulnerability to prevent potential data theft, as recent disclosures have highlighted significant security gaps in iOS and macOS.
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