MIT finds a smarter way to fight Spectre-style CPU attacks

[InfoSec News <alerts () infosecnews org>]

https://www.engadget.com/2018/10/18/mit-dawg-fights-spectre-attacks/

By Jon Fingas
Engadget.com
October 18, 2018

Many companies have developed patches to mitigate Meltdown- and 
Spectre-like speculative memory attacks. However, they can come with 
compromises: they can leave major gaps and still slow down your system. 
MIT researchers may have a better way. They've developed a new method, 
Dynamically Allocated Way Guard (yes, DAWG is on purpose), that promises 
tight security without dragging performance through the dirt.

It boils down to isolating memory caches on processors in a way that 
prevents them from seeing anything they don't need to know. MIT likens it 
to putting walls in a kitchen that prevent chefs from seeing each other's 
ingredients and tools. There are multiple separate cache ways with their 
own domain identities, each of which is validated. New policies, 
meanwhile, deal with cache "misses" that could signal an attack.

[...]



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