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El Reg published an article about a security flaw introduced by Intel starting with its Pentium Pro line of processors--and left in place for fifteen years, fixing it only in 2011--and also comes with instructions on how to exploit it. So, if you have any pre-2011 processor running some important machine, perhaps you should be thinking of an upgrade after you finish reading the article.
From the article:
It allows smart hackers to run rootkit code at the very lowest level on the computer, out of reach of the operating system, its applications, and even the hypervisor. This means the rootkit can, among other things, silently monitor and record the user's every keypress, mouse click, and download.
Efforts to detect the rootkit and eradicate it from a computer can be blocked, or hampered, by the malware itself. A nightmare, in other words.
The good news is that Intel spotted the howler in its processor blueprints, and corrected the issue: chips built from January 2011 and onwards (Sandy Bridge Core CPUs and later) are not affected. Also, operating systems can mitigate against the security hole at the hypervisor level, thus protecting themselves from miscreants exploiting the design flaw...
This kind of thing makes me want to go back to using a pocket calculator.
(Score: 5, Funny) by TrumpetPower! on Wednesday August 12 2015, @01:12AM
Slide rule or go home! In fact, I'm posting this message using mine and a couple tin cans on a string....
b&
All but God can prove this sentence true.
(Score: 3, Funny) by jdavidb on Wednesday August 12 2015, @01:45AM
Slide rule or go home! In fact, I'm posting this message using mine and a couple tin cans on a string....
It's gratifying to hear that some people still use tin [tin.org]
ⓋⒶ☮✝🕊 Secession is the right of all sentient beings
(Score: 3, Funny) by TrumpetPower! on Wednesday August 12 2015, @02:00AM
YOU FORGET THE FIRST RULE OF USENET!
b&
All but God can prove this sentence true.
(Score: 2) by mendax on Wednesday August 12 2015, @03:11AM
I did think about saying instead that I'd consider using my fingers but thought better of it. With my fingers I can only count to 11.
It's really quite a simple choice: Life, Death, or Los Angeles.
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Wednesday August 12 2015, @06:39AM
Only to 11? I can count up to a number of ten digits!
But anyway, fingers are easily hacked.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 2) by mendax on Wednesday August 12 2015, @06:44AM
I only have ten fingers, and my netherthumb [wikipedia.org].
It's really quite a simple choice: Life, Death, or Los Angeles.
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Wednesday August 12 2015, @07:20AM
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digit_%28anatomy%29" [wikipedia.org]
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 2) by q.kontinuum on Wednesday August 12 2015, @04:33PM
Even my 12yo son knows how to count to 31 using just one hand, and he even knows how to apply that knowledge practically :-)
"I didn't have too much coke, it's less than I could count on one hand..."
Registered IRC nick on chat.soylentnews.org: qkontinuum
(Score: 2) by mendax on Wednesday August 12 2015, @07:37PM
Given the replies to this comment, it's obvious that Soylentils have no sense of humor. Or if they did, it all leaked out of their bodies as the result of the trauma done to them by enduring that other news site we do not mention here.
It's really quite a simple choice: Life, Death, or Los Angeles.