Intel breathes a sigh of relief as the spotlight moves off of them for a beat.

  • db2@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    It does mean that any secondhand computer or CPU (or even CPU from a sketchy source) could be compromised prior to being physically sold.

    It’s worse than that, any AMD chip from any source except maybe AMD directly is suspect. Mine is a few years old from Amazon supposedly new, for all I know it came compromised and is sitting there doing what I tell it to until it triggers and I won’t even know when or if it happens.

    • rhombus@sh.itjust.works
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      1 year ago

      If I understand it correctly, the chip has the vulnerability, but the malware would be installed on the motherboard in the form of a bootkit. So getting a used CPU is not a threat, but getting a used motherboard is (and kind of always has been) a risk.

        • rhombus@sh.itjust.works
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          1 year ago

          CPU firmware exploits are incredibly rare, if there even are any that exist beyond proof-of-concept. The chances of getting an infected CPU from this is so unlikely it’s practically impossible.

            • rhombus@sh.itjust.works
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              1 year ago

              Which, again, is an incredibly unlikely attack vector unless you have some government secrets on your computer. And chances are that any attack through the IME or PSP is trying to do an implant into the UEFI/BIOS and not the processor itself.