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‘Sinkclose’ Flaw in Hundreds of Millions of AMD Chips Allows Deep, Virtually Unfixable Infections


Researchers warn that a bug in AMD’s chips would allow attackers to root into some of the most privileged portions of a computer—and that it has persisted in the company’s processors for decades.

Nissim and Okupski note that exploiting the bug would require hackers to already have obtained relatively deep access to an AMD-based PC or server, but that the Sinkclose flaw would then allow them to plant their malicious code far deeper still. AMD declined to answer questions in advance about how it intends to fix the Sinkclose vulnerability, or for exactly which devices and when, but it pointed to a full list of affected products that can be found on its website's security bulletin page. Nissim and Okupski, both of whom specialize in the security of low-level code like processor firmware, say they first decided to investigate AMD's architecture two years ago, simply because they felt it hadn't gotten enough scrutiny compared to Intel, even as its market share rose.

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