A research conducted in the beginning of 2018 has discovered that almost all computer chips that were built in the past 20 years have serious security flaws, particularly named as the Meltdown and Spectre. It was investigated that the fundamental origin of the bug ascended from the basic features of the chips that make the system run faster and ensuring better performance. By far, no evidence has been brought forward that proves the adversity of Meltdown and Spectre, but the researchers have concluded that these flaws may cause major destruction in terms of data security.

What are Meltdown and Spectre?

Meltdown and Spectre are two variants of the same vulnerability which may affect almost all computer chips manufactured in the past 20 years by exploiting the data which you may think is completely protected for years. Apparently, the research about this flaw was conducted in the year 2017 but published in 2018. Moreover, the vulnerability is categorized in three variants, two of which are compiled and known as Spectre and the third one is called Meltdown. However, all three flaws have their own individual CVE ID.

What is CVE?

CVE (Common Vulnerabilities & Exposures) is a program launched in 1999 by a nonprofit organization (MITRE) that assembles the identified vulnerabilities in a free dictionary which can be accessed by all organizations to improve the security of their information systems.

What is Meltdown (CVE – 2017-5754)?

The Meltdown flaw tends to exploit the contents of private kernel memory of old processor chips through an unauthorized system. The processors which are vulnerable to Meltdown bug include all the CPUs manufactured in 1995 and onwards. If your computer is running an unpatched OS, there may be a chance that it is has a vulnerable processor, hence it is not recommended to input sensitive information on such system. However, tech geeks have introduced a few software patches to beat Meltdown.

What is Spectre (CVE-2017-5753, CVE-2017-5715)?

Spectre is a blend of two vulnerabilities. Spectre threats extraction of information from running applications in the system. Spectre makes your system vulnerable to an attacker to steal the login credentials by tricking those programs which seem to be error-free. The processors that tend to get affected to some extent by Spectre include processors of Intel, AMD, and ARM.

How and what does it affect?

The Spectre and Meltdown open various possibilities for attacks that can lead to serious security threats. Meltdown can be exploited by attackers to intrude into the systems and reveal the data used by other users and can even access the data which is present on virtual servers. With Spectre attackers and exploiters can smartly trick the web browsers and conveniently steal the login details, passwords, and other sensitive data. It wouldn’t be wrong to assume that Meltdown and Spectre are very dangerous for your data and an absolute threat to IT security. So every user is prone to get affected by this vulnerability if you don’t follow the methods to prevent your system from it.

How to protect your devices against Meltdown and Spectre?

Too threatened with the information above? Relax! Some of the patches which can save your device from being affected by Meltdown and Spectre are already released in the latest system updates so no need to freak out on the adversity of this vulnerability. The only drawback we forecast is that multiple companies and entities are involved to manufacture a whole computer. This includes PC manufacturers, processor manufacturers and the companies that run operating systems in them. Therefore it isn’t easy to track if your current PC is fully secured, however, you are recommended to run every single update on your browsers, applications, and programs irrespective of what operating system you use.