The first, called Meltdown, affects Intel chips and lets hackers bypass the hardware barrier between applications run by users and the computer's memory, potentially letting hackers read a computer's memory and steal passwords. The researchers said Apple Inc and Microsoft Corp had patches ready for users for desktop computers affected by Meltdown. Google said it informed the affected companies about the "Spectre" flaw on June 1, 2017 and reported the "Meltdown" flaw after the first flaw but before July 28, 2017. (http://bit.ly/2CsRxkj) Intel denied that the patches would bog down computers based on Intel chips. Google said in a blog post that Android phones running the latest security updates are protected, as are its own Nexus and Pixel phones with the latest security updates.

Source: dna January 04, 2018 04:18 UTC