GHOSTWRITE VULNERABILITY AFFECTS RISC-V CPU, MITIGATING TAKES A ~77% PERFORMANCE HIT

Summary from the TLDR InfoSec newsletter

A new CPU vulnerability called GhostWrite affects a common RISC-V processor, allowing attackers to read/write to any part of the computer's memory. Mitigating GhostWrite requires disabling around half of the CPU's functionality, leading to a significant 77% performance hit by turning off the vector extension support. The vulnerability is not related to speculative execution. RISC-V chips are becoming more popular targets for security researchers and attackers.