Security News

Conti spotted working on exploits for Intel Management Engine flaws
2022-06-02 22:15

The notorious Conti ransomware gang has working proof-of-concept code to exploit low-level Intel firmware vulnerabilities, according to Eclypsium researchers. Recently leaked Conti documents show the criminals developed the software more than nine months ago, and this is important because exploiting these kinds of weaknesses expands the extend and depth of an intrusion, the firmware security shop's analysis noted.

Conti ransomware targeted Intel firmware for stealthy attacks
2022-06-02 13:22

Researchers analyzing the leaked chats of the notorious Conti ransomware operation have discovered that teams inside the Russian cybercrime group were actively developing firmware hacks. It is important to note that contrary to TrickBot's module that targeted UEFI firmware flaws, aiding Conti infections and later undertaken by the ransomware group, the new findings indicate that the malicious engineers were striving to discover new, unknown vulnerabilities in the ME. Firmware attacks in ransomware.

If you've got Intel inside, you probably need to get these security patches inside, too
2022-05-12 21:06

Intel has disclosed high-severity bugs in its firmware that's used in datacenter servers, workstations, mobile devices, storage products, and other gear. In addition to patching these high-severity vulnerabilities, Intel also issued an advisory for what it's called a speculative cross-store bypass, a data-leaking hardware-level security shortcoming it reckons is low in severity and which affects some of its processors.

Intel Memory Bug Poses Risk for Hundreds of Products
2022-05-11 12:27

Chipmaker Intel is reporting a memory bug impacting microprocessor firmware used in "Hundreds" of products. "Potential security vulnerabilities in some Intel Optane SSD and Intel Optane SSD Data Center products may allow escalation of privilege, denial of service or information disclosure," reported Intel.

Feds offer big rewards for info on suspected Russian Sandworm intel officers
2022-04-27 17:46

Uncle Sam will dole out up to $10 million for vital information on each of six Russian GRU officers linked to the Kremlin-backed Sandworm gang, who, according to the Feds, have plotted to carry out destructive cyber-attacks against American critical infrastructure. It's hoped the money, offered via the US Department of State's Rewards for Justice program, will lead to the snaring of the following men said to be Russian intelligence officers: Yuriy Sergeyevich Andrienko, Sergey Vladimirovich Detistov, Pavel Valeryevich Frolov, Anatoliy Sergeyevich Kovalev, Artem Valeryevich Ochichenko, and Petr Nikolayevich Pliskin.

Hardware-assisted security poised for growth, says Intel
2022-04-12 17:30

An Intel study finds that businesses are eager for cybersecurity and are keen to see how security can be baked into devices. Hardware-assisted security uses hardware extensions and components to support the security of higher-level machine layers, from the BIOS up through desktop applications.

Intel shuts down all business operations in Russia
2022-04-06 03:57

US chipmaker Intel announced Tuesday night that it had suspended all business operations in Russia, joining tech other companies who pulled out of the country due to the invasion of Ukraine. Intel had already suspended all shipments to customers in Russia and Belarus last month after the US government issued sweeping sanctions that prevented the export of technology to the countries.

Another data-leaking Spectre bug found, smashes Intel, Arm defenses
2022-03-15 09:22

Intel this month published an advisory to address a novel Spectre v2 vulnerability in its processors that can be exploited by malware to steal data from memory that should otherwise be off limits. Spectre is one of two closely related chip architecture blunders, details of which emerged in 2018; the other being Meltdown that The Register first highlighted.

New Exploit Bypasses Existing Spectre-V2 Mitigations in Intel, AMD, Arm CPUs
2022-03-12 22:10

Researchers have disclosed a new technique that could be used to circumvent existing hardware mitigations in modern processors from Intel, AMD, and Arm and stage speculative execution attacks such as Spectre to leak sensitive information from host memory.Attacks like Spectre are designed to break the isolation between different applications by taking advantage of an optimization technique called speculative execution in CPU hardware implementations to trick programs into accessing arbitrary locations in memory and thus leak their secrets.

Intel, AMD, Arm warn of new speculative execution CPU bugs
2022-03-09 17:03

Security researchers have found new a new way to bypass existing hardware-based defenses for speculative execution in modern computer processors from Intel, AMD, and Arm. Today, the three CPU manufacturers have published advisories accompanied by mitigation updates and security recommendations to tackle recently discovered issues that allow leaking of sensitive information despite isolation-based protections.