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by fractaled 2289 days ago
I'm pretty sure the issue with Spectre/Meltdown is about an OS process reading other processes' (or kernel) memory. These are fundamentally chip issues, not developer issues.

See https://googleprojectzero.blogspot.com/2020/02/escaping-chro....

3 comments

No, Spectre is always about reading your own memory. Your link is about exploiting MDS aka Zombieload — a separate hyper-threading vulnerability, specific to Intel CPUs.
The issue with Meltdown is about an OS process reading other processes' (or kernel) memory - this is caused by the CPU not enforcing its protection boundaries properly and is mitigated by CPU microcode or firmware updates.

The issue with Spectre is about an OS process (or kernel) reading its own memory - this is why in contrast to Meltdown it can't be fully fixed by CPU microcode or firmware updates, it requires mitigation in any code that enforces security boundaries, such as kernels or sandboxing VMs.

This is a fantastic link, thanks for sharing.