Both Microsoft and Redhat have released advisories about a new variant of the Spectre 1 speculative execution side channel vulnerabilities that could allow a malicious program to access and read the contents of privileged memory in an operating system.

This would allow malware running without elevated privileges to potentially read data from memory being used by a Windows or Linux kernel.

Andrei Vlad Lutas of Bitdefender discovered this new vulnerability in Intel CPUs

In a statement from Intel, BleepingComputer was told that these vulnerabilities would be more thoroughly disclosed in a new paper being published by Bitdefender called “Security Implications of Speculatively Executing Segmentation Related Instructions on Intel CPUs”.

“On August 6th, researchers from BitDefender published a paper entitled “Security Implications of Speculatively Executing Segmentation Related Instructions on Intel CPUs”. As stated in their paper, Intel expects that exploits described by the researchers are addressed through use of existing mitigation techniques. We believe strongly in the value of coordinated disclosure and value our partnership with the research community. As a best practice, we continue to encourage everyone to keep their systems up-to-date.”

Microsoft secretly fixes vulnerability in July updates

During the July 2019 Patch Tuesday security updates, Microsoft secretly patched the new SWAPGS speculative vulnerability using software mitigations.

Microsoft’s advisory is titled “Windows Kernel Information Disclosure Vulnerability” and they states that they held back on documenting the vulnerability until today as part of a coordinated industry disclosure.

According to Microsoft, Andrei Vlad Lutas of Bitdefender discovered this new vulnerability in some Intel CPUs that would allow malicious user mode programs to access and read the contents of the Windows Kernel memory.

“To exploit this vulnerability, an attacker would have to log on to an affected system and run a specially crafted application,” Microsoft explained in their advisory. “The vulnerability would not allow an attacker to elevate user rights directly, but it could be used to obtain information that could be used to try to compromise the affected system further.”

To resolve this vulnerability, a Windows security update was released on July 9th, 2019, that fixes the vulnerability through software changes that mitigate how a CPU speculatively accesses memory. Microsoft further stated that it is not required to install a microcode update to resolve this vulnerability.

“Customers who have Windows Update enabled and have applied the security updates released on July 9, 2019 are protected automatically. There is no further configuration necessary.”

Furthermore, it is not known if these software changes will have any effect on Windows performance like previous mitigations.

BleepingComputer has reached out to Microsoft and Bitdefender and will update the story as more information becomes available.

Red Hat releases updated kernels

Red Hat has also released an advisory regarding this latest Spectre variant titled “CVE-2019-1125: Spectre SWAPGS gadget vulnerability”.

Red Hat users can fix this vulnerability by updating the kernel and installing the latest microcode updates.

“Red Hat has been made aware of an additional spectre-V1 like attack vector, requiring updates to the Linux kernel in combination with microcode updates. This additional attack vector builds on existing software fixes shipped in previous kernel and microcode updates. This vulnerability only applies to x86-64 systems using either Intel or AMD processors.”

Google adds SWAPGS fix to ChromeOS 4.19

Google has added fixes for this vulnerability to ChromeOS 4.19, which is expected to be released soon.

In a bug report, Google has merged SWAPGS patches into ChromeOS 4.19 and updated their Spectre admin-guide to include information about this vulnerability.

“An attacker can train the branch predictor to speculatively skip the swapgs path for an interrupt or exception. If they initialize the GS register to a user-space value, if the swapgs is speculatively skipped, subsequent GS-related percpu accesses in the speculation window will be done with the attacker-controlled GS value. This could cause privileged memory to be accessed and leaked.”

This is a developing story. 

Bleeping Computer^® is a community of individuals of all ages who are here to learn new information, to help each other, and to help their fellow peers. With that in mind, we ask that all members please follow these simple rules in order to create an atmosphere where everyone feels comfortable.

The rules are as follows:

• All information and instructions given within these forums is to be used at your own risk. By following or using any of this information you give up the right to hold BleepingComputer.com liable for any damages.
• All the forums are categorized by topics.  Please post your questions or messages in the appropriate forum.
• Answers to many of the questions you may have can be found in the Tutorials Section, Glossary, or from other posts on the message boards.  Please use the search functions, at the top right of each page, to find your answers.  If you are still having problems, feel free to post your question.
• All help must be provided in the forums or on our Discord Server. We do not allow support to be provided or requested via personal message, email, or remote desktop control programs (Logmein, TeamViewer, etc).
• If a topic is posted in a forum that is not appropriate for the question, the staff has the right to move that topic to another better suited forum.
• The posting of any copyrighted material on our web site is strictly prohibited.
• Posting links in order to generate affiliate commissions is not permitted at BleepingComputer.com. Any posts that are deemed to be posted in order to generate affiliate commissions, regardless of the product being promoted, will be deleted. If a user continues to create affiliate SPAM posts, they will be banned.
• Posting links to non-Bleeping Computer malware removal guides is NOT permitted with the exception of security vendors who sometimes release specialized tools and instructional documentation. This is because it is impractical for BleepingComputer to monitor and review all such guides for accuracy, no matter how accurate those guides may, in fact, be.
• There will be no  use of profanity on our message boards.  This will not be tolerated and can lead to immediate suspension.
• When posting, please use proper grammar. Refrain from ‘text-message’ style substitutions of words like ‘u’ for ‘you’, and ‘ur’ for ‘your’. This is a multi-national forum, and some of our non-english speaking members must use translation software which is confused by abbreviations. Most of our volunteer members are very busy helping as many people as they can, and a post that is hard to read will often be overlooked.
• There will be no racial, ethnic, gender based insults or any other personal discriminations.  This will not be tolerated and can lead to immediate suspension.
• There will be no posts meant to offend or hurt any other member, in a manner which is offensive or inflammatory. This includes flaming or instigating arguments.
• Spamming is not permitted; please keep all your posts as constructive as possible.
• Pornography, warez, or any other illegal transactions may NOT be linked in any shape or form.
• If you have questions regarding homework, we will only help you with general concepts. If you are looking for a complete solution or answer, we will most likely just delete your post.
• No subject matter will be allowed whose purpose is to defeat existing copyright or security measures. If a user persists and/or the activity is obviously illegal the staff reserves the right to remove such content and/or ban the user. This would also mean encouraging the use or continued use of pirated software is not permitted, and subject to the same consequences.
• If you are receiving assistance in the Virus Removal forum, you are not allowed to request assistance for the same computer at another malware removal forum. This is to prevent conflicting advice from causing issues with your computer or making it unbootable.
• This forum has the right to request alteration or deletion of any offensive post. If this is not done in a prompt manner, the Staff will delete the material themselves.
• Posts may be deleted for any reasons the forum administrators deem reasonable.
• Pictures may be posted as long as they are not explicit, offensive, or copyrighted.
• Advertisements, of any sort, are not permitted. This includes member names and links to commercial sites in Signatures, or in posts. You also may not solicit sales for Newegg through the use of promotion or coupon codes. If you would like to advertise on our site, contact us here.
• In order to reduce spam on the site, you will not be able to add a signature to your account until you reach 25 posts. Signatures are limited to 5 lines or 2000 characters; whichever comes first. If your signature is larger than the allotted size given or deemed unacceptable, you will be requested to adjust your signature. Failure to comply will result in the removal of your signature.
• Only one image per signature. Images in signatures must also be no larger than 500 pixels wide X 90 pixels high. If you have more than one image you will be requested to remove one. If this is not done in a timely manner the staff has the right to modify your signature to abide by these rules.
• Any links in signatures or profiles cannot be commercial in nature or they will be removed by BleepingComputer. You may not put links in your signature soliciting donations unless you are in certain member groups. Those member groups that are allowed will be expressly notified. If you have a personal website or off-site help resource, that is more than fine, but you can not sell products or services through your signature. Multiple links to the same site, unless for a very specific reason, are not permitted in a signature and will be removed.
• Avatars must be in good taste. This means no vulgar or violent images, pornography, or profanity. Avatars that are found to be inappropriate will be removed at the discretion of the staff.
• Linking to hate, anti-Semitic, racist, pornography, warez, or other illegal sites is not permitted.
• Links in your signature must be unobtrusive and can not use formatting so that attention is brought to them.
• Member’s display names can not be email addresses. This rule is in place to protect you from spam bots who will pick up your email address and spam you.
• Members may have only one account on this forum. There is no need to have more than one.
• Any impersonation of a user from these forums, in any mode of communication, is strictly prohibited and will result in a banning.
• Linked and locked topics are pruned regularly to reduce page clutter. If you have a question about where your topic went, please PM a Moderator or Administrator before starting a new topic asking where it went, or posting a duplicate of the original topic. We will be happy to provide you with a link to the new location, or a reason why it was locked and/or removed.

Violation of any of these rules can lead to a banning of the user from our Web Site and a deletion of their account. The consequences will be determined by the Staff on a case by case basis.

When posting you agree that the administrators and the moderators of this forum have the right to modify, delete, edit or close any topic, signature, account, or profile data at any time that they see fit. If you have any questions concerning this, please do not start a new thread, but rather private message to an administrator or moderator.

contact us