LATEST INTEL CPUS IMPACTED BY NEW INDIRECTOR SIDE-CHANNEL ATTACK

Summary from the TLDR InfoSec newsletter

Researchers have discovered a new Branch Target Injection vulnerability in Intel CPUs that could be used to steal sensitive information. The attack has three components: the iBranch Locator uses eviction-based techniques to identify the indices and tags of victim branches and determine the Indirect Branch Predictor entries for them, targeted injections are then performed against the prediction structures to perform speculative code execution, and then an ASLR bypass makes the prediction and manipulation of control flow of protected processes easier. The researchers reported their findings to Intel and recommended more aggressive use of the Indirect Branch Protection Barrier and bolstering the Branch Prediction Unit design.