The current Intel processor design is derived from the Skylake architecture released in August 2015. This is more than 5 years of architecture and lithography on the market that is used in most current Intel processors. The problem is that this architecture has many vulnerabilities, to which we must add another 52 new ones.
Intel a few days ago, in August 2020, it would have issued 18 new notices covering a total of 52 vulnerabilities. That these vulnerabilities are found does not mean that they are easily exploitable or that they have been exploited. What's more, most vulnerabilities can only be exploited physically, not remotely.
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New vulnerabilities are added to Intel processors
What's interesting about Intel's advisory is that half of these vulnerabilities have been found internally. The rest would have been found by different external security researchers. It appears that the company is currently working hard to develop mitigations for these vulnerabilities.
Specifically, they have been detected:
- Security vulnerabilities in selected Intel server boards, server systems, and compute modules that would allow privilege escalation or denial of services. The firmware updates required for mitigation are 'critical'. They have a CVSS rating of 9.6
- Thunderbolt controller notice, although no further details have been revealed at this time
- Security vulnerability in the tool for Data Centers, Intel SSD that allows escalation of privileges
- Firmware Privilege Escalation Vulnerability Affecting Some Intel NUCs
- Possible privilege escalation or denial of service within Intel graphics drivers in Windows.
All of these notices are posted on the Intel Security Center. From Intel they emphasize that none of these detected vulnerabilities have been exploited in the real world. It remains to be seen if any of these vulnerabilities can be exploited remotely, although it seems unlikely.
Source: Phoronix
