New Intel CPU Flaw Exploits Hyper-Threading to Steal Encrypted Data

A team of security researchers has discovered another serious side-channel vulnerability in Intel CPUs that could allow an attacker to sniff out sensitive protected data, like passwords and cryptographic keys, from other processes running in the same CPU core with simultaneous multi-threading feature enabled.

The vulnerability, codenamed PortSmash (CVE-2018-5407), has joined the list of other dangerous side-channel vulnerabilities discovered in the past year, including Meltdown and Spectre, TLBleed, and Foreshadow. The new side-channel vulnerability resides in Intel’s Hyper-Threading technology, the company’s implementation of Simultaneous MultiThreading (SMT).

The simple fix for the PortSmash vulnerability is to disable SMT/Hyper-Threading in the CPU chip’s BIOS until Intel releases security patches. OpenSSL users can upgrade to OpenSSL 1.1.1 (or >= 1.1.0i if you are looking for patches).

https://thehackernews.com/2018/11/portsmash-intel-vulnerability.html