Although previous reports claimed that Meltdown and Spectre bugs were affecting mainly Intel’s processors, later it was revealed that the bugs are more widespread than previously thought and they affect CPUs from Intel, AMD, and ARM.
The latest revelation comes via an official statement from Intel which said that the exploit can be applied to all systems including AMD and ARM processors. The statement said, “Recent reports that these exploits are caused by a ‘bug’ or a ‘flaw’ and are unique to Intel products are incorrect.Based on the analysis to date, many types of computing devices — with many different vendors’ processors and operating systems — are susceptible to these exploits.”
Afterwards, Qualcomm has confirmed that its processors are also vulnerable against the attacks and updates to fix the problem will be coming shortly in the coming days.
You should note that users won’t be receiving the updates directly. After the chip manufacturers introduces a fix, it will be sent directly to the OS manufactures and you will receive update from them. As a result, if you are notified about an update in the coming days, you should install it as soon as you can to protect your devices against attacks. Moreover, as internet browsers are popular method of attacks, both Firefox and Chrome have released updates which fix the flaw. If you are using either of these browsers, you should update your browser immediately.
Image: Flickr/Kārlis Dambrāns
