Downfall (security vulnerability)
Downfall is a computer security vulnerability found in recent generations of Intel x86-64 microprocessors. It is a side-channel attack which relies on speculative execution of AVX instructions to reveal the content of vector registers.[1][2] Intel's SGX security subsystem is also affected by this bug.[2]
The Downfall vulnerability was discovered by the security researcher Daniel Moghimi, who publicly released information about the vulnerability in August 2023, after a year-long embargo period.[3][4] Intel uses the name "Gather Data Sampling" to describe the vulnerability.[5]
Intel has promised a microcode update to resolve the vulnerability.[5] The microcode patches have been shown to significantly reduce the performance of some heavily-vectorized loads.[6]
Patches to mitigate the effects of the vulnerability have also been created as part of the forthcoming version 6.5 release of the Linux kernel.[7] They include code to disable the AVX extensions entirely on CPUs for which microcode mitigation is not available.[8]
References
- ^ Newman, Lily Hay. "New 'Downfall' Flaw Exposes Valuable Data in Generations of Intel Chips". Wired. ISSN 1059-1028. Retrieved 2023-08-08.
- ^ a b Ilascu, Ionut (2023-08-08). "New Downfall attacks on Intel CPUs steal encryption keys, data". BleepingComputer. Retrieved 2023-08-08.
- ^ Wright, Rob (2023-08-08). "Google unveils 'Downfall' attacks, vulnerability in Intel chips". Security. Retrieved 2023-08-08.
- ^ Larabel, Michael (2023-08-08). "Intel DOWNFALL: New Vulnerability Affecting AVX2/AVX-512 With Big Performance Implications". www.phoronix.com. Retrieved 2023-08-08.
- ^ a b "Gather Data Sampling / CVE-2022-40982 / INTEL-SA-00828". Intel. Retrieved 2023-08-08.
- ^ Liu, Zhiye (2023-08-10). "Intel's Downfall Mitigations Drop Performance Up to 39%, Tests Show". Tom's Hardware. Retrieved 2023-08-11.
- ^ Larabel, Michael (2023-08-08). "Linux 6.5 Patches Merged For Intel GDS/DOWNFALL, AMD INCEPTION". www.phoronix.com. Retrieved 2023-08-09.
- ^ Corbet, Jonathan (August 8, 2023). "Another round of speculative-execution vulnerabilities". lwn.net. Retrieved 2023-08-11.
External links
Vendor responses:
- AWS: AWS-2023-007
- Citrix: CTX569353
- Dell: DSA-2023-180
- Debian: CVE-2022-40982
- GCP: GCP-2023-024
- HP: HPSBHF03859
- Intel: INTEL-SA-00828
- Lenovo: LEN-134879
- QUBES: QSB-093
- Redhat: CVE-2022-40982
- Supermicro: Intel Platform Update (IPU) Update 2023.3
- Ubuntu: CVE-2022-4098
- VMWare: VMware Response to Gather Data Sampling (GDS)
- Xen: Xen Security Advisory CVE-2022-40982 / XSA-435
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