AMD CPUs Revealed Passwords; New Patch Fixes Vulnerability
AMD has patched a serious security vulnerability in its CPUs. The problem was caused the chip driver that enabled unauthorized persons to, among other things, access passwords.
It's not just video games or emails that get hacked. Numerous reports proved that also hardware components can become a gateway for unwelcome guests, including GPUs, printers or even gaming mice. The latest such information was provided by AMD in an announcement about a serious security vulnerability in the company's CPUs. It was discovered by ZeroPeril, a company that researches and develops technologies related to computer security.
CVE-2021-26333 (as the issue was marked) affects the Platform Security Processor driver and enables unauthorized persons not only access to passwords stored on a computer but also sending own data packets to it (which, of course, makes people vulnerable to many types of malware attacks). The vulnerability is present in many AMD CPUs, including:
- AMD Ryzen 1000, 2000, 3000, 4000 and 5000 Series processors (including versions with integrated graphics);
- AMD Ryzen Laptop Processors 2000, 3000, 4000 and 5000 Series;
- AMD Ryzen Threadripper 1st, 2nd and 3rd generation processors.
Fortunately, we don't have to wait for this bug to be fixed. AMD in cooperation with ZeroPeril has already prepared a patch available through Windows Updates (as 5.17.0.0) or directly from the company's website (version 3.08.17.735). This is more than we received for the vulnerability called Transient Execution of Non-canonical Accesses (similar to Meltdown known from Intel CPUs) - AMD left the problem to developers.
