by Antonio Delgado 4 hours ago …

A group of researchers from the security company Positive Technologies have managed to decrypt Intel’s secret key for CPUs and allows them to fully see all the content of updates and security patches, this key decrypts these microcode updates that Intel introduces to fix bugs and security vulnerabilities in its processors, although they can sometimes break other system functions.

With this code, people with knowledge of the subject could perform this process, for example a hacker could perform reverse technology and exploit any security holes that has been run As previously mentioned, it would also be possible to upgrade an Intel CPU with your own microcode. The technique is to use a USB cable or a special Intel adapter to send the data to a vulnerable CPU. The Team has named this tool after the Matrix movie “Chip Red Pill” and they may receive some compensation from Intel.

This is the first time this has been achieved , and it has been thanks to the “Red Unlock” service mode that Intel uses to perform tests on the processors before releasing the updates for the CPUs, they have managed to exploit this vulnerability. Although this does not constitute a security problem for users since it would not be possible, for example, to carry out an attack remotely and being necessary to load the code in person with these methods mentioned above, if allows other people to carry out research on other vulnerabilities previously installed and use them in any way, even maliciously.

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Antonio Delgado

Computer Engineer by training, editor and hardware analyst at Geeknetic since 2011. I love gutting everything that comes my way, especially the latest hardware that we get here for reviews. In my spare time I fiddle with 3d printers, drones and other gadgets. For anything here you have me.

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